REV THOMAS H. PEARNE. 
(At the age of 30 years.) 



SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT 
CHRISTIAN LIFE 
IN CHURCH AND STATE 



sir 



THOMAS HALL PEARNE, D. D. 

author of 

" The World Harvest," " The Two Churches," " The Twentieth 
Century," "Cincinnati Sunday Saloon," "Railroads 
AND Civilization." 




pniitcd for the Hutbor 

CINCINNATI : CURTS & JENNINGS 
NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 
1899 



DEDICATION. 



To my dear daughter, 
VIRGINIA WyOMING PEARNE, 
t^bis Tolumc 
Is affectionately dedicated. 

Thomas hall Pearne. 



PREFACE. 



THIS volume is due to the partiality of iny 
brethren of the Cincinnati Conference, who, 
by a resolution passed at their session in 1896, 
requested that it be prepared. It was thought by 
them that a record of my experiences and obser- 
vations, extending through a ministry of over sixty 
years, would be of interest and value to the Church, 
and contain suggestions that might lead its readers 
to a more active and better spiritual life. In ac- 
cordance with this resolution the work was under- 
taken, and the present book is the result. 

• The author has not written these pages in the 
form of a diary, nor has he given a detailed nar- 
rative of his life. He has attempted rather to 
present the more striking events with which he 
has been connected, and to depict some of the 
great incidents of our ecclesiastical and civil his- 
tory which came under his notice, together with 
occasional sketches of the prominent actors with 
whom he has been more or less associated from 
his younger years. He has endeavored to be a 
faithful chronicler, and to describe persons and 
scenes as they were, or, at least, as they appeared 

5 



6 



PREFACE, 



to him. Most of what is given has been written 
from recollection. The events of my earlier life 
still seem fresh and vivid. If I have lost some- 
what of the buoyant spirit of childhood, I trust 
that the high hopes then conceived have in a 
measure been fulfilled through my ministry, and 
that I have not labored in vain in the I^ord. 

For whatever success I may have had in 
preaching the Word and in cultivating the field 
given me by the great Head of the Church, to 
him be the glory. T. H. P. 

Hii,i,SBORO, AuGUSl?, 1898, 



PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 



THE favor which the public has shown to this 
book, exhausted the first edition within about 
six or eight months after it was issued. The second 
edition, it is believed, will be even more sought than 
the first. Besides a few minor corrections, it contains 
an appendix of some fourteen or fifteen pages, making 
a volume of 506 pages. The topic treated is current 
in reading circles. Its treatment, it is believed, will 
well repay those who may purchase the volume. It 
is hopefully commended to the public. 

T. H. P. 

HlI.I,SBORO, O., ApRII,, 1899. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE influence of Methodism upon the marvelous 
growth of what was once called the Great West, 
upon its educational and its religious life, will never, 
probably, be accurately measured nor fully acknowl- 
edged. A distinguished jurist, judge of the Supreme 
Court in one of the Western States — a professed 
Deist — is reported to have said, on one occasion: ''But 
for the Methodist Church and the Methodist min- 
istry, this country would have sunk into barbarism.'* 
This may be an extravagant statement ; but the early 
Methodist itinerants were, undoubtedly, a remarkable 
class of men. It is said occasionally, in a half apolo- 
getic tone, that these hardy and adventurous pio- 
neer preachers were men for their times ; and so indeed 
they were, and nobly did they fulfill their missiono 
Some of these sturdy heroes were the vanguard of 
our early frontiersmen, who, advancing westward 
from the Atlantic seaboard, over the AUeghanies and 
across the Mississippi Valley, swept onward over the 
Rockies to the Pacific Ocean, thus spanning the conti- 
nent with a splendid type of Christian civilization^ 

It is certainly within bounds to say that Meth- 
odism has been second to no other human agency in 
promoting the remarkable growth of the West ; and it 
so, the publication of the many biographies of the 
pioneers of this pioneer Church, which have been is- 
sued in recent years, is amply vindicated; for these 
books are an important part of the history of the 
country. 

7 



s 



INTRO D UCTION. 



Many notable and most valuable contributions have 
been made already to this biographical literature of 
the Church, including sketches of such recognized 
leaders as Francis Asbury, Jesse Lee, William Wat- 
ters, Henry Smith, Elijah Hedding, James B. Finley, 
David and Jacob Young, James Quinn, Peter Cart- 
wright, Thomas A. Morris, Granville Moody, William 
I. Fee, and many others. The writer of this auto- 
biography ranks easily with these and other distin- 
guished men of the denomination, and it is eminently 
proper that a life of such varied and protracted useful- 
ness should find a permanent place in the history of 
the Church. It may be said truthfully, I believe, that 
no man in the ministry of American Methodism has 
sustained an ef¥ective relation in the itinerant ranks 
for so many years, consecutively, as are embraced in 
this volume, and it will be the earnest prayer, I am 
sure, of all who read these thrilling pages, that the ' 
author may long be spared to the Church he has so 
nobly served. 

The sixty-one years of active and conspicuous 
service which Dr. Pearne has given to the Church 
already, covers a most interesting period in the history 
of the world — the most remarkable period, perhaps, 
in the nineteen 'centuries of the Christian era; for in 
that time, and on this continent, and in this Republic, 
humanity has reached its high-water mark of material, 
intellectual, and political thrift. The fact that this 
splendid Western civilization is the highest now exist- 
ing, is due largely to the labors of the pioneer preach- 
ers in the formative and history-making epoch in 
which they lived. Certainly these born leaders of men 
are worthy to be held in af¥ectionate remembrance by 
those of us who have entered into their labors. 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

And yet, worthy as is this volume of a place in 
every Methodist library, it is not probable that its 
preparation would have been undertaken but for the 
action of the Cincinnati Conference, in 1896, as 
follows : 

"Whereas, Dr. Thomas H. Pearne, an honored and able 
minister of this Conference, having had large experience in 
public and journalistic service, has in many ways accom- 
plished great good in both Church and State; therefore, be it 
"Resolved, That we express to him our high regard, with 
the hope that he will be able to place his Reminiscences in 
printed form. If it be feasible, we suggest and request that 
he prepare such a volume, which we believe will be of great 
interest and value. 
"C. W. Barnes, J. A. Story, C. L. Conger, 
"D. Lee Aultman, M. M. Kugler, John Pearson, 
"F. G. MiTCHELi,, G. W. Dubois, Wm. Runyan." 

The reader of this volume will note the division 
of the author's life into five periods, each marked by 
distinctive conditions and duties. The first fourteen 
years of his ministry — from 1837 to 185 1 — were spent 
in Central New York and Northern Pennsylvania. 
Here all the characteristics of the Church and of soci- 
ety were marked by more or less culture and ma- 
turity, even at that early time, rather than by the 
rudeness and hardships of pioneer life; and yet it was, 
after all, the transitional period between the old and 
the new — the evolution from the earlier and simpler 
forms of life to the higher civilization of the present 
times. The common-school system was then in its 
infancy; the Sunday-schools were crude and com- 
paratively inefficient; railways were unknown; steam- 
boats were in their earlier stage, limited to river trans- 
portation ; there were then no ocean steamers ; the daily 
newspaper was a luxury, only to be enjoyed m the 



lO 



INTROD UCTION. 



largest cities ; and telegraphic news from all parts of the 
Vvorld, printed daily, was not even dreamed of as a 
possibility. Methodism, then, was of the primitive 
type. The class-meetings, band-meetings, love-feasts, 
were given great prominence, and strangers were ad- 
mitted to them cautiously, and not more than twice 
or thrice. Instrumental music was very generally ex- 
cluded from the services of the Church. Its intro- 
duction was stoutly opposed as an innovation, for- 
bidden alike by precedent, prejudice, and the claims 
of spiritual worship. It would be a great mistake, 
therefore, to suppose that the life of an itinerant Meth- 
odist preacher, even in that favored region, would be 
destitute of hardship, romance, and such thrilling in- 
cidents as constitute the web of all human history. 
Of Dr. Pearne's marked success as a preacher and 
pastor in this initial period there is abundant evidence, 
apart from that furnished, incidentally, by his auto- 
biography. 

The second period — 185 1 to 1865 — was that spent 
in Oregon. No part of Dr. Pearne's ministry, it is 
safe to say, has been more influential in molding opin- 
ions and shaping results than the fourteen years 
passed in Oregon. He was selected for that work by 
one of the wisest men on the Episcopal Bench, and 
the outcome fully vindicated the wisdom of the choice. 
The country was new, and the foundations of civil, 
educational, and religious institutions were being laid. 
A man of force, courage, and ability was needed 
to take leadership in the plastic stage of out Church 
life in that important and strategic -field. Of Dr. 
Pearne's work in Oregon, as a presiding elder and an 
editor, this is not the place to speak at length. The 
following pages will reveal how great was his oppor- 



INTR OD UCTION. 



II 



tunity, and how fully he met the demands of the situ- 
ation. That country was receiving, at that time, large 
accessions to its population from all parts of the Re- 
public; these accessions were swelled, no doubt, by 
the contiguity of the recently-opened gold-mines of 
CaHfornia. Dr. Pearne's position naturally brought 
him into close relations with the pioneer leaders of that 
section, in religious, civil, and military life, and so 
impressed were these leaders in civil affairs with the 
Doctor's statesmanlike qualities that he was once 
importuned to stand for an election to the United 
States Senate. Dr. Pearne did not encourage this 
movement, because, as he felt, he could not relinquish 
the work committed to his hands by the Church. 

The third term included five years spent in the 
South, in the "Reconstruction Days" following the 
Civil War. His work was in East Tennessee, and in 
connection with the first Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church organized in Tennessee after the 
overthrow of slavery, and the rehabilitation of that 
State -with sovereignty. The war, indeed, was over, 
and armed rebellion was subdued ; but the fierce pas- 
sions aroused by the long and bloody struggle, and 
the bitter prejudices excited by that unhappy, fra- 
ternal strife, still existed. Dr. Pearne's position here 
was a most delicate, difficult, and even dangerous one, 
as will be noted by the reader in the thrilling narrative 
of that period. 

From this important work Dr. Pearne was called 
by the Administration at Washington to serve his 
country as United States consul in the British West 
Indies. Of course, the duties of this position were 
secular rather than sacred; and yet amid the engross- 
ing duties of his official position in Jamaica, the Doctor 



12 



INTROD UCTION. 



found time to respond to the frequent calls made upon 
him to occupy the various pulpits of the city, and 
also of the island of Jamaica, in all of which he 
preached frequently, except in those of the Roman 
Catholic Church and the Church of England. 

The last of the five periods into which the Doctor 
has divided his life — from 1874 to the present time — 
has been spent in the regular work of the itinerancy 
in Ohio, as a member of the Cincinnati Conference. 
Entering this body at an age when ministers are gen- 
erally supposed to have crossed the "dead line," Dr. 
Pearne took at once the position in the forefront which 
he holds now, and is likely to hold until his- voluntary 
retirement from the effective ranks. Whether as 
pastor or presiding elder, his rare ability as a 
preacher, his genial personality, his fidelity to every 
trust, and his faithful discharge of every duty, have 
made him one of the most acceptable and useful min- 
isters of his day. 

The Church will be grateful to Dr. Pearne for this 
valuable contribution to its pioneer literature, and it 
will be read, I have no doubt, with increasing interest 
as the years go by, and greater distance lends still 
greater enchantment to the heroic days of American 
Methodism. 

JOHN F. MARIvAY. 
SPRiNGFiBiyD, Ohio, August, 1898- 



CONTENTS. 



first pmod— Bcgtntiing Ititicrant Hifc 

CHAPTER I. 

Ancestry — Birth — Conversion of Parents — Early Childhood — 
Removal to New York Mills, Oneida County — Happy 
Home-life — Father a Local Preacher, then an Itinerant — • 
Old-time Veterans — Conversion, and Call to Preach — 
School-life — Serious mistake, Page 21 

CHAPTER n. 

Begin preaching as a Supply — Truxton Circuit — First Appoint- 
ment — First Sunday — Changed to Madison Station — 
Marriage — Amusing Incident — Appointed to Marcellus — 
Funeral — James Jay, an Old Wesleyan Preacher — Skane- 
ateles — ^Visit there in 1864 — Auburn — Returned to Madi- 
son — Revivals and Church Improvements, 31 

CHAPTER IIL 

General Conference of 1844 — Personal Recollections, ... 41 
CHAPTER IV. 

Binghamton — Eel-pot Church — Wyoming — Great Revival — 
Elisha Harris my Helper — Conversion of Payne Pette- 
bone— I/Ctter from Rev. R. W. Van Schoick, 53 

CHAPTER V. 

Francis Asbury, Personal Reminiscences — Wilkesbarre — 
Bishops Soule and Waugh, who Ordained me — Bishop 

Roberts, 63 

13 



14 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Associations and Experiences — Fathers of the Oneida Con- 
ference — Marmaduke Pearce — John Dempster — Joseph 
Castle — George Harmon — The Paddock Brothers — David 
A. Shepard — The African Missionary — ^W. W. Ninde — 
Elias Bowen, Page 77 

CHAPTER VII. 
Jesse T. Peck — George Peck — George Gary, 91 



Second pmod— Hif e iti Oregon. 

CHAPTER Vm. 

Transfer to Oregon — Conditions inducing — ^Voyage — Steamer 
Associates — Delay in Aspinwall — Passage up the Chagres 
River — Incidents — San Francisco Delay — Port Oxford — 
Indians — Portland — J. H. Wilbur — Oregon City — Salem — 
Ministers, 109 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Name Oregon — Description — Columbia River and Valley 
— Willamette River — Umpqua and Rogue Rivers — Wash- 
ington — Climate — Camp-meeting Lunatic — Rook Creek 
Camp-meeting — " T-^o-seed " Baptist • — Santiam Camp- 
meeting — Doctrinal Preaching, 123 

CHAPTER X. 

Toils and Hardships — Muleback Riding — Trip to Washington 
in December, 1852 — An Inhospitable Priest — Lost — A 
Bitter Cold Night— Narrow Escape from Freezing — Christ- 
mas Walk in Deep Snow Twenty-six Miles — Floods 
out, 134 

CHAPTER XI. 

Sloughs — Weddings and Funerals — Incidents, 124 



CONTENTS. 



15 



CHAPTER XII. 

Jargon — Wolves — Trip with Bistiop Simpson — Bishop Ames in 
Oregon in 1853 — Organization of Oregon Conference — 
Educational Plants — F. S. Hoyt — Other Preachers — Con- 
ference of 1854 — Bishop Simpson's Sermon — Reminis- 
cences of his Visit to Oregon — Incident, .... Page 148 

CHAPTER XIII. 

With Bishop Simpson on the Columbia River — Bishop Baker 
at Oregon Conference, 1855 — Delegate to General Confer- 
ence — Pacific Christian Advocate Founded — General 
Conference Incidents — Elected Editor — Fortieth Anniver- 
sary of the Advocate^ = 166 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Bishop Simpson's Last Visit to Oregon, 1862 — Buggy-ride 
with him to Yreka — Appeal Case tried before Bishop 
Janes — National Republican Convention in Baltimore, 



1864 — Oregon a Free State — Contrasts, , . 180 

CHAPTER XV. 
'a Stage Trip from Oregon across the Plains, in 1864, . . 194 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Adventures with Indians and Wild Beasts, 215 

CHAPTER XVII. 



Oregon and Slavery — Secession — Editorials in Advocate, . 224 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Thanksgiving Sermon, 1862 — Christian Patriotism — The Re- 



bellion, 238 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Oregon and the Northwest Boundary — General Scott — Our 
First Mission House in Oregon, 258 



i6 



COA^TENTS. 



Cbird period— Reconstruction* 

CHAPTER XX. 

A Year's Absence from the Conference for Rest and for Work 
in tlie Army — Christian Work in the Army — City Point- 
Care of Hospital Ward — ^Work During a Bloody Engage- 



ment at Hatcher's Run, Page 271 

CHAPTER XXL 

Bishop Clark's Visit and Work in East Tennessee in 1865 — Or- 
ganizes the Holston Conference of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church — History of the Proceedings, 281 

CHAPTER XXII. 

History of the Reorganization continued — Letter Concerning 
Bishop Clark's Work in the South, 300 



CHAPTER XXIIL 

Letter from Nashville Concerning Reconstruction — Editorial 
in Western Christian Advocate — Work on Knoxville Dis- 
trict — ^Visit to Asheville — Perils — Misunderstandings, .310. 



■fourth period— Hs United States Consut 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

United States Consul to Kingston, Jamaica — Reasons super- 
inducing — Duties of the OflSce — Cuban Excitements — 
Steamer Edgar Stuart — Steamer Virginius — Captain 
Fry's Farewell to his Wife — Editorial in Western Chris- 
tian Advocate on " The Spanish Difficulty," 327 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Events in the Consulate — Visit of Frigate Tennessee to King- 
ston — Bishop Coxe — Commissioners to San Domingo — 
History and Description of Jamaica, 339 



CONTENTS. 
fifth period— ^dork in Ohio. 



CHAPTKR XXVI. 

Return to United States — Secretary American Colonization 
Society — Residence in Cincinnati — Illness and Death of 
Mrs. Pearne — Resignation of Secretaryship — Transfers to 
Cincinnati Conference — Appointed to Grace Church, Day- 
ton — Second Marriage, to Miss McDonald — Dayton Dis- 
trict — Unveiling a Painting — Address — Urbana — Wesley 
Chapel, Cincinnati — Centennial Sermon, .... Page 363 

CHAPTER XXVIL 

Central Church, Springfield — God in the Constitution — Answer 
to Ingersoll — First Church, Xenia — Semi-centennial Ser- 
mon — Hillsboro District — Hillsboro College — Hillsboro 
Charge — A Remarkable Event — The Gospel on Horse- 



back — Closing Words, 410 



Hppcndix. 

Thk Twentieth Century, 493 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Thomas H. Pearne at the Age oe Thirty 

Years, Frontispiece. 

Oregon Presiding Ei.der and his Faithfui, 

MuivE, . . . o Face Page 134 

Thomas H. Pearne at the Age oe Seventy- 
eight Years, Face Page 410 



First ^ztiai. 

Beginning Itinerant Life. 



CHAPTER I. 



I WAS well born. Like Paul, I was free born. 
My birth date is June 7, 1820. 

"My boast is not, that I deduce my birth 
From loins enthroned and rulers of thp earth; 
But higher far my great pretensions rise. 
The child of parents passed into the skies." 

My parents were, on my mother's side, of the hardy 
Cornish stock; on my father's side, of Rochester 
Bridge, Kent County, London. Father was strictly 
a Cockney; i. e., a Londoner; mother was a York- 
shire woman. The former inherited the culture 
and keenness of observation of the civic conditions 
of his birth and early years. Mother transmitted 
to me the vigor and robustness of her own sturdy 
constitution. Both lived to a ripe age, each of 
them dying when about seventy-four. Both were 
members of the Church of England. Mother's an- 
cestors for two generations had been Wesleyans. 
Her father and her grandfather were local preach- 
ers in Mr. Wesley's Connection. The tradition 
runs that on mother's side there was a dash of the 
Wesley blood in our veins. 

Yet while both my parents had the forms of 
godliness by their membership in the Church of 
England, neither of them knew its power. They 
had never experienced what is understood, among 
Methodists, as a change of heart. On their arrival 
in New York, a Methodist and a relative inquired 

21 



22 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

of father whether he had ever been converted, and 
how his soul was prospering. It was the first time 
in his fife that such questions had ever been ad- 
dressed to him. The same person invited them to 
attend a revival-meeting, then going on in Duane 
Street Methodist Episcopal Church, New York. 
In the first Methodist meeting they ever attended 
they went forward to the altar for prayers, and 
united with the Methodist Episcopal Church as 
seekers of religion. I have often heard my father 
say that he was indebted, under God, for his salva- 
tion to the zeal of the New York Methodists, and 
to this wise provision for receivijig persons as seek- 
ers of religion on trial in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. 

The earliest years of my life were spent in New 
York. When I was five years old — i. e., in 1825 — 
my father moved with his family into Central New 
York. We settled in a place called New York 
Mills, a cotton factory village in Oneida County, 
which employed some five hundred operatives. 
The place was three miles east from Utica, and one 
mile west from Whitesboro. Father's family was 
typically large. It consisted of ten children — seven 
sons and three daughters. One died in infancy; 
another in his ninth year. A third died at four- 
teen. The others lived to adult age. Their names 
.were, respectively, William, Nathaniel, Thomas, 
Francis, Mary, Harriet, Benjamin, John, and Hes- 
ter. Hester was called home when fourteen, John 
Wesley at twenty-three, Harriet at twenty-five, Na- 
thaniel at fifty, and William at seventy-five. His 



THE FAMILY—INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 23 

ministerial life began when he was twenty-one, and 
continued fifty-four years. Nathaniel was a mer- 
chant. For many years he was in the wholesale 
store of A. T. Stewart, New York; and for a few 
years he kept a retail store on Bleecker Street. 
Benjamiin was a mechanic. John Wesley was a 
printer, a compositor in the office of the New York 
Commercial Advertiser. Three of the family re- 
main : the writer, sister Mary, and brother Benja- 
min ; the latter, respectively, in Cortland and Ox- 
ford, New York. Those who have gone, died in 
the Lord, after lives of piety and usefulness. All 
the children in my father's family were converted 
in early childhood^ and united with the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, most of them before the age 
of twelve. 

In my boyhood, the introduction of instru- 
mental music in the Sunday service created much 
agitation and violent contention. A maiden lady 
of some maturity came into the church while the 
first hymn was being sung. For the first time in- 
struments had been introduced into the choir in the 
gallery; but as she was under the gallery, directly 
below where the choir sat, she did not observe the 
musical instruments, and she sang from the same 
hymn-book with my mother with apparent zest 
and delight. After the prayer, and when the second 
hymn was announced, the instruments sounded the 
pitch. ''What is that?" said she to my mother. 
"Musical instruments," was the answer given. She 
was seized with hysterical convulsions, which lasted 
several days. 



24 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

Father and mother and my oldest brother, and 
our hired girl, with three other persons, tmited with 
the Methodist Episcopal Church by letter, and 
were organized into a class by the Methodist min- 
ister stationed in Utica, and my father was ap- 
pointed class-leader. Father held a license as a 
local preacher. For a time we had meetings in our 
house, and then the mill company assisted the vil- 
lagers in building both a Methodist church and a 
Presbyterian church. In both these churches we 
had sweeping revivals of religion. In the Presby- 
terian Church, Rev. Charles G. Finney w^as the 
evangehst. In one of these revivals a large num- 
ber of children were converted. Among these were 
two brothers and a sister of mine, and also Edward 
G. Andrews, at present, and for twenty-five years 
past, one of our honored and beloved bishops. My 
father was a schoolteacher in England and in this 
country, and he was also an accountant. For sev- 
eral years he was the clerk and the cashier of the 
factory. He was a man of large reading, of good 
education, and of literary tastes and pursuits. He 
had a somewhat full library. As I was a voracious 
reader, I soon held its treasures in my possession. 

Our home was a bright, Christian home, the 
abode of content and piety. It was well ordered, 
full of cheer and comfort. The family were taught 
to fear and love and honor God. Family worship 
was kept up morning and evening. The religion 
of the family was sunny and joyous. Music was • 
much loved and enjoyed. We were a very happy 
family. We knew and sang the old Methodist 



FATHER A TRAVELING PREACHER. 



25 



hymns and tunes. Mother was a very sweet singer. 
Father sang some; but his voice was less musical 
than mother's. Father regularly filled appoint- 
ments as a local preacher in places not too far from 
our home. 

In 1832 father entered the traveling connection, 
in which he continued thirty-six years. His death, 
at the age of seventy-four, was peaceful and tri- 
umphant. His last words were, "Happy! happy!" 
Mother's last words were : ''Though I walk through 
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no 
evil: for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff 
they comfort me." At fourteen I was made a class- 
leader of a large class, mostly of females, some 
forty or fifty of them. Six months later I was 
licensed to exhort, and at fifteen I was licensed 
as a local preacher. In 1836-37 I attended school 
at Cazenovia Seminary, in Madison County, New 
York. The principal of the school was Rev. 
George Peck, D. D., who later filled a large place 
in the Methodist Episcopal Church as editor of the 
Christian Advocate, New York, and the Methodist 
Quarterly Reviezv. 

OIvD-TIMB VETERANS — PHCEBUS — MERWIN — BANGS. 

The writer's feet first pressed the soil of old 
Oneida Conference in his childhood. In his early 
manhood he traveled the circuits and ministered in 
some of the stations of that goodly field. There 
were giants in those days. He saw them. He 
heard them. He remembers them. However far 
his path may have since diverged from those earlier 



26 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

scenes, and however diversified the experiences and 
events of the later years, memory has embahned the 
recoUections of those golden times. Those mem- 
ories reach distinctly to 1828. 

One of the well-remembered events of that 
early period was about that time. It was the pres- 
ence in my father's home, as guests, of three vener- 
able preachers of the New York Conference. They 
were men of large stature and fine presence: tall, 
portly, aTid of courteous bearing. The third ses- 
sion of the Oneida Conference was held in Utica, 
N. Y., three miles distant from New York Mills, 
the place of my boyhood home. These persons 
were visitors at the Oneida Conference from the 
New York Conference. New York Mills ^^-as then 
a new charge. Two years before this the first class 
of seven persons was organized in my father's 
house ; four of them, as' already stated, were of our 
family. The name of the new charge first appeared 
in the Annual Minutes in 1826, with Charles Giles 
as pastor. In four years it had grown to three 
hundred and sixteen members. It was now assist- 
ing, in sustaining the Conference. The manly 
guests, already named, were : Dr. William Phoebus, 
Rev. Samuel Merwin, and Rev. Nathan Bangs. 

Dr. Phoebus was then an old man. He had 
been forty-seven years in the itinerancy. He began 
his ministry in 1783, the year before the organiza- 
tion of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Thus 
my association with him in childhood relates me, 
personally, with the beginning of our organic 
Church life. Dr. Phoebus was well-preserved, vi- 



VETERANS — PHOEBUS, MERWIN. 



27 



vacious, and most agreeable in his manners. He 
was born in. Maryland in 1754. After having trav- 
eled ten years he located, and after a brief term 
he re-entered the itinerancy. In 1798 he was again 
located, and engaged in the practice of medicine 
in New York. Eight years later he joined the New 
York Conference. In 1824 he was superannuated, 
in which relation he remained until his death, in 
1 83 1. His mind was vigorous. His knowledge 
was large and various. In men and books he was 
well versed, and also in the early records of the 
Church and in the different systems of Church 
order and government. He was large in person, 
and noble looking. His manner was genial. He 
was quite attentive to children, who -in turn loved 
and admired him. He was fluent in speech, and 
well stored in racy incidents, which he rendered 
graphically. Upon my young imagination he made 
a deep impression, never since effaced. He was a 
leading member of the General Conferences of 
1808 and 1812. He was a strong man in Meth- 
odism, aiding effectively in extending her borders 
and strengthening her stakes during her immature 
period. He helped to lay broad and deep her foun- 
dations, upon which the Methodist Episcopal 
Church has had a most astonishing growth in num- 
bers, activities, and resources. 

The second of these eminent ministers was Rev. 
Samuel Merwin, who was yet in his vigorous prime. 
He, too, was genteel and elegant. He was prob- 
ably a little above fifty, and had .been preaching 
thirty years. He was above average height, of full 



28 sixrr-oxE years of itinerant work. 



habit, yet not corpulent. Dr. Bangs was less corpu- 
lent than Phoebus, and taller than Merwin. He 
baptized me in my early childhood, in Duane Street 
Church, New York — of which fact I still hold a 
very distinct recollection. As I recall him he was 
slightly round-shouldered, with his head somewhat 
inclined to one side. He, too, was a most genial, 
interesting person. All the early Methodist preach- 
ers were specially attentive to the children in the 
families where they w^ere guests. Dr. Jesse T. 
Peck, afterward bishop, was also a frequent visitor 
at our house, and w^e much enjoyed his visits. 

]My call to the ministry antedated my conver- 
sion. It was very strong and clear, and I even 
commenced to preach in my eighth year. My 
entrance into the pastoral work was somewhat 
peculiar. In the fall of 1837 I was attending the 
Cazenovia Seminary, Rev. Dr. George Peck the 
principal. I had no means. I boarded myself, and 
did odd days' work, and I also did chores in the 
morning. I lived on bread and milk and potatoes 
and salt, renting a room and doing my own cook- 
ing; my entire living costing me from fifty cents 
to seventy-five cents a week. A vacancy occurred 
on a circuit some fifteen or twenty miles away. 
A junior preacher was needed. The presiding elder 
came and offered the place to me. I remained on 
this charge nearly two years. Near the end of the 
second year I had two offers to go through col- 
lege. An Episcopalian, who came to my semi- 
monthly services, and whose generous hospitality 
as a host I often shared, said to me one evening, 



AN EARLY MISTAKE. 



29 



"Are you very desirous of getting a classical edu- 
cation?" Upon my returning an affirmative an- 
swer, he offered to send me through the Geneva 
College, an Episcopalian institution in Western 
New York, and then through the theological 
school at the same place, defraying all my expenses, 
and then depending on me to repay the debt as I 
might be able after graduation. I consulted my 
father, who said that meant that I would enter the 
ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church. I 
declined, with many thanks. A Methodist layman 
made me the same kind of an offer. He wished 
me to go to the Wesleyan University in Middle- 
town, Conn., then our only collegiate institution 
in the East. We had then no theological school 
in our Church. That is the offer I should have 
accepted. I would have done so, only that a pre- 
siding elder dissuaded me, urging me to enter the 
Conference at once, and educate myself while em- 
ployed in the pastoral work. This wrong advice 
I followed, and, being recommended to the Con- 
ference from the charge on which I had been a 
supply for almost two years, I was admitted into 
the Oneida Conference in the early autumn of 
1839. 

I was then nineteen years of age. I pursued 
my studies in Greek and Latin and Hebrew, gain- 
ing a smattering knowledge in those languages. 
But it was a mistake not to have obtained a clas- 
sical education, which has been recognized and 
regretted through my whole ministry. While per- 
haps holding an average grade among my minis- 



30 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

terial brethren, I am satisfied I would have been 
much more effective and useful in my ministry if 
I had more fully prepared myself by education. 
There was less blame for the wrong counsel of 
presiding elders sixty years ago than now. Edu- 
cated young men are waiting every year to enter 
our itinerancy, and those whose education is in- 
complete should not be allowed to enter the travel- 
ing ministry. And there is now even less excuse 
on the score of poverty for failing to secure edu- 
cational preparation than there was in the earlier 
times ; for we have a society in our Church, deserv- 
ing high commendation for it, which will advance 
the necessary means for attending school to those 
who are needy. In this way the children's fund has 
aided, by loans and gifts, six thousand young per- 
sons who were called of God to labor in his work, 
either as teachers or preachers. In the year 1897 
sixteen hundred have been thus assisted. This list 
for a single year includes persons of twenty-five 
nationalities. If, with the knowledge I now have, 
the life I have lived could be begun anew, I would 
never commit the folly of my early manhood, and 
omit the opportunities then offered for acquiring 
an education. 



\ 



CHAPTER II. 



THE first year of my supply on the Onondaga 
Circuit, James Atwell, of blessed memory, was 
my colleague; the second year, Benjamin G. Pad- 
dock. Both were veterans, and both gave me sym- 
pathy, kindness, and abundance of excellent in- 
struction. The early system of our itinerancy, of 
going out in pairs, was very advantageous to the 
young ministers. It answered a good part in their 
training. 

After my admission into the Conference on 
trial, my first appointment was on Truxton Circuit. - 
Lyman K. Reddington was my senior colleague. 
He died a few years ago, aged over ninety years. 
Here I spent my first Sabbath after Conference. 
I preached four times. The plan of the circuit for 
that day was ten A. M., Truxton, preaching and 
class-meeting. I led the class here, as also in Cuy- 
ler, five miles away, where I preached at two P. M. 
My plan named the third appointment at Kinney's 
Settlement, -and to stay at Kinney's — class-leader. 
I reached here at five o'clock. I stopped with the 
class-leader. Brother Kinney. His wife informed 
me he had gone on to meeting. So I concluded my 
plan was wrong, and that five o'clock was the 
proper hour for my evening appointment. I rode 
on half a mile. A large congregation was waiting 
for the preacher. I entered, saddlebags in hand, 
and at once I took my seat in the teacher's desk, 

31 



32 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



for it was a schoolhouse. The congregation looked 
at me with apparent curiosity, for I was a total 
stranger. After a few minutes a gentleman beck- 
oned me to follow him out of doors. He said: 
"You are a stranger. May I inquire your name?" 
I gave him my name, and informed him that I was 
the junior Methodist preacher, sent there from 
Conference. He said: "My name is Kinney; I am 
the class-leader. You will stay with me to-night. 
Our meeting is across the creek at our church, at 
early candle-lighting. This meeting here is a Bap- 
tist meeting. The people are expecting a Baptist 
minister from TuUy. If he does not come, I doubt 
not the people would like you to preach to them." 
So we returned into the house, and I began, with 
some shame, to take a lower seat. The expected 
minister not arriving, I was invited to preach, which 
I did, and then at evening at the Kinney Church, 
making four sermons and two class-meetings in one 
day and twelve miles of travel. 

The next day I hired a buggy, and started for 
my old circuit to get my books and my clothes. I 
passed through Cazenovia, where my father was 
stationed, and where my presiding elder. Dr. Elias 
Bowen, lived. He changed me from Truxton cir- 
cuit to Madison station, as the* minister who was 
appointed there was tmable to serve them on ac- 
count of ill-health. The year was a delightful one. 
Revivals occurred, and some fifty or sixty persons 
were converted. Here I became acquainted with 
the daughter of Solomon Root, Esq., Miss Ann P. 
Root, who, two years later, became my wife, and 



FIRST SUNDAY'S WORK. 



33 



with whom, for thirty-three years, I Uved in happy 
and prosperous union of hearts and hands. An in- 
cident in connection with the wedding will be en- 
joyed : 

I was married, October 5, 1841, by my father, 
who at the time was stationed in Utica. As I 
wanted to take a wedding trip to Trenton Falls 
in my buggy, and return to Utica for the Sabbath, 
my father exchanged pulpits with me for that Sun- 
day, and he went to Marcellus for me. I reached 
Utica with my bride on Saturday night, putting up 
at my father's house. I grew up three miles from 
Utica, and I knew personally many of the leading 
members of that Church, where I was to preach. 
At Church-time my mother and myself, accom- 
panied by my wife, made our way to the church. 
As we were about to enter I saw Father Swartwout, 
one of the veterans, standing on the doorstep a 
little distance away, with others of the Official 
Board, whom I knew. I told Mrs. Pearne to go 
in with my mother, and I would go and speak to 
my friends standing near. Of course, my wedding 
suit was befitting. A fine silk hat, a white necktie, 
kid gloves, morocco shoes, etc. Approaching my 
venerable friend, I said, extending my hand, *'How 
do you do?" Instead of taking my hand, he eyed 
me from head to foot, and inquired my name. I 
told him my name. "What !" said he, "are you a 
son of our minister?" "I am," said I. "Well," said 
he, "do you call yourself a Methodist minister?" 
"I do not so call myself," I replied ; "but I am one 
all the same." "Well, well," said he, "you do not 
3 



34 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

look like the fortieth cousin to a Methodist 
preacher." 

It should be remembered that Mr. Swartwout 
was very plain in his dress. He wore a white, 
broad-brimmed hat; a single-breasted, straight- 
collared, cutaway coat, and straight boots — not 
rights and lefts. They were round-toed as well. 
He added, ''I suppose you have a written sermon in 
your pocket, which you will pull out and read to 
us." ''No," said I, "not that; I never read my ser- 
mons, but I preach them. Come and hear me." 
He did hear me. I had a fine time. He got very 
happy under my sermon, and shouted, as did some 
others. At the close of the sermon he met me at 
the foot of the pulpit stairs, and shook hands with 
me very cordially, saying: "I take it all back, what 
I said to you about not looking like a Methodist 
preacher. You are one, and I bid you God-speed. 
God bless you, and make you very useful !" 

My next station was Marcellus, in Onondaga 
County. It adjoined the circuit in which my min- 
istry began. We had two prosperous years, and 
nearly one hundred souls professed conversion. 
During this year I formed the acquaintance of a 
young man and his father — artists, portrait-paint- 
ers — who occupied rooms in a disused clock fac- 
tory. They came to Church, and professed great 
interest in me. I sat for my likeness in crayon. It 
was not very satisfactory. There was an air of 
mystery about them, and when I would call they 
seemed embarrassed. The mystery was afterwards 
solved by the discovery in their rooms of counter- 



A SINGULAR FUNERAL. 



55 



feiter's implements; and they were arrested, for 
counterfeiting. The portrait-painting was a blind. 

' During this year I attended a funeral some 
eight or "ten miles away. It was of a lady of nearly 
ninety years. She was the mother of twelve chil- 
dren, some forty-five grandchildren, and thirteen 
great-grandchildren. They were Holland Dutch 
by descent. The old lady came from Holland in 
her young married life, with some two or three of 
her children. The family had gone twenty miles 
to secure a Dutchman to conduct the funeral. He 
could not serve them, and, at his suggestion, they 
came for me. They were wealthy people. The 
funeral was in their house. It was elegantly fur- 
nished, and they were evidently luxurious livers, 
I had not been preaching more than fifteen min- 
utes when they broke out in loud lamentations and 
grief, which continued for some minutes. Indeed, 
it seemed uncontrollable. It prevented any further 
preaching. We rode two miles through a drench- 
ing rain to the burial. I returned by request to the 
house, and dined with the family. The dinner was 
elaborate. Five or six courses of meat, including 
beef, mutton and pork, venison, capons, turkey, 
duck, and goose, and other courses of dessert. The 
sideboard was laden with liquors of various kinds, 
of which nearly all partook. I was urged to take 
some wine or stronger stimulant ; which, however, 
I declined. The hilarity of the dinner festival was 
fully the counterpart of the demonstrations of sor- 
row and mourning which had interrupted my 
preaching. On leaving, I was presented with two 



36 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

dollars for my attendance and with profuse compli- 
ments for my sermon, which they averred had been 
very satisfactory. This funeral will give an idea 
of the prevalent customs of those early times. 

On this station we had a large number of Eng- 
lish people, who had come to America a few years 
before, having been members of the Wesleyan so- 
ciety in England. Among them was a venerable 
superannuated minister of eighty-four years. He 
was a fine preacher and a sweet-spirited man. His 
name was James Jay, a relative of William Jay, of 
Bath, an Independent or Congregational minister, 
who had published a valuable collection of Scrip- 
ture passages and comments for every morning and 
evening. Benn Pitman, the stenographer, said a 
few years ago in Cincinnati, "that he was probably 
the only person in the United States who had seen 
those who had known John Wesley and had 
shaken hands with him and heard him preach. Mr. 
Jay I knew intimately for two years. He often 
preached in my pulpit. He and his family were 
members of my Church, He had been for several 
years one of Mr. Wesley's helpers or assistants be- 
fore Mr. Wesley died. Mr. Jay knew him well for 
four years before his death. My grandfather on 
my mother's side, Thomas Hall, was a local 
preacher in Mr. Wesley's Connection, and had 
often heard him preach. Mrs. Lester, a venerable 
old lady, whom I well knew, and who was a fre- 
quent visitor at my father's house in my early teens, 
was a member of Mr. Wesley's society for ten years 
before his death. She had often heard him preach. 



INCIDENTS OF MR. WESLEY'S LIFE, 37 

and had been present in his society meeting or 
class-meeting when Mr. Wesley led the class. 

Mr. Jay gave me two incidents of Wesley's Hfe 
which he witnessed. Mr. Wesley came into his 
circuit and spent a day. At the dinner, at which 
were several Wesleyan preachers and circuit offi- 
cials, there was a little disposition to gossip. One 
of the preachers remarked that one of Mr. Wesley's 
preachers had become very gay in his apparel. He 
had taken to wearing ruffled bosom shirts. "Well," 
said Mr. Wesley, plucking Mr. Jay's coat, "when 
Jemmy can not preach without a ruffled shirt, he 
shall have one if he wants it." After dinner, and 
following the afternoon sermon, Mr. Wesley started 
on his journey, accompanied by the ministers, all 
well mounted. After going about two miles they 
alighted, and Mr. Wesley sang a hymn with them 
and prayed. Then they shook hands and parted. 

From Marcellus I was sent to Skaneateles, 
seven miles west from Marcellus. I remained 
here only one year; but my return was earnestly 
requested. Here also, as at Marcellus, was a large 
sprinkling of English people. They were all fine 
musicians, instrumental and vocal,*and there were 
four of them, each of whom wanted very badly to 
lead the singing in the Church. Sometimes two 
of them would hasten to select and start the tune 
before the other could get in his work. The di- 
vision of leaders divided the Church into segments 
of about equal numbers. I announced that I would 
dispense with the choir and choristers, and I would 
lead the singing from the pulpit. This gave us 



38 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT' WORK. 

pause from friction. I continued it through the 
year. 

In 1864, eighteen years later, I returned from 
Oregon to attend the General Conference, to which 
I was a delegate. I spent a Conference Sunday in 
Skaneateles, where I was made most cordially wel- 
come. I preached in the afternoon from i Samuel 
ii, 30: ''Them that honor me I will honor; but they 
that despise me shall be Hghtly esteemed." Bishop 
Simpson had preached one of his magnificent ser- 
mons in the morning. The reunion was very 
pleasant. The year I was pastor in Skaneateles was 
successful. Large congregations attended upon 
the preaching and upon the week-night services. 
Our accessions and conversions amounted to one 
hundred. 

The following year I was sent to Auburn, five 
miles west from Skaneateles. The stone church 
was sixty by ninety feet ; a large congregation and 
membership. The Millerite excitement ran very 
high. I had twelve class-leaders. Six of them had 
embraced the Millerite delusion, which was that 
Jesus was coming in March, 1843, person from 
heaven to judge mankind, and to set up his millen- 
nial kingdom. They converted their class-meetings 
into Second Advent discussions, and dissensions 
threatened permanently to disrupt the Church. I 
took their class-books from them, and gave them to 
those who would teach a more edifying doctrine. 
My predecessor had taken a crowd of people of dis- 
reputable notoriety into the Church, and for the 
first six months of the year we were holding leaders' 



SECOND PASTORAL TERM IN MADISON. 39 

and stewards' meetings weekly, dropping out the 
unruly and disturbing elements, until we had dis- 
posed of one hundred and twenty, by dropping or 
expelling them. Then we had a powerful revival, 
and one hundred and fifty were added to the 
Church. 

At the end of the year we were returned to 
Madison, our first station. Family reasons induced 
this. My wife's mother was in feeble health, and 
requested that Mrs. Pearne should return to her 
home and cheer her closing days. The year was 
marked by great peace and some ingathering of 
souls. In Madison, Marcellus, and Skaneateles we 
made substantial improvements in church and par- 
sonage property. In Madison we built a new 
church, and introduced into it a pipe-organ, the 
first one introduced into a Methodist church in 
New York State west of the Hudson River. It 
was not dedicated until my successor. Rev. A. J. 
Dana, was in charge. When the dedication of the 
church occurred, Dr. Bowen, the presiding elder, 
was requested to dedicate the Lord's house. He 
objected to do so, unless the organ was removed. 
The committee waited upon Dr. Joseph Cross, the 
stationed minister of Cazenovia, and asked him if 
he would dedicate the church with an organ in it. 
He promptly answered that he would, and he would 
also dedicate the organ with every pipe in it. This 
statement was announced to Dr. Bowen, and he 
consented to officiate. This was in his dedicatory 
prayer : Lord, we dedicate this beautiful church- 
building, with all appropriate and necessary appur- 



40 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 



tenances thereunto belonging or in any manner 
appertaining, to thy great name and worship." 
The circumlocution was his way of avoiding and 
evading the recognition of the organ. If interro- 
gated upon the subject, he could make answer that 
the organ was neither "appropriate nor necessary." 



CHAPTER III. 



DURING the May of the Conference year, 1844, 
I attended the General Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, which met in Green 
Street Church, New York, as a spectator, and saw 
and heard all that occurred in that historic Confer- 
ence on the subject of Bishop James O. Andrew 
and Rev. Francis A. Harding, as slaveholding 
bishop and minister. Bishop Andrew was sus- 
pended from episcopal functions as long as the 
impediment of his connection with slavery should 
remain. The Conference refused to reverse the 
action of the Baltimore Conference, by which Mr. 
Harding had been expelled from the Conference 
for being a slaveholding minister. There were 
giants in that body on both sides of the great de- 
bate, which lasted through several days. That was 
a very live question in our section of the country, 
and some twenty thousand of our members in the 
Eastern and Northern States seceded from the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, and organized the 
Wesleyan Methodist Connection. 

The w^hole scene of that General Conference is 
mapped out in my memory as vividly and strongly 
as though it occurred yesterday. The great 
speeches on the side of the North, were by Ham- 
line, Peck, Bangs, Olin, Durbin, John A. Collins 
of Baltimore, and others. On the South side, Will- 
iam A. Smith, of Virginia; George F. Pierce, of 



42 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



Georgia; Ignatius A. Few, of Georgia; William 
Capers, of South Carolina ; and John Early, of Vir- 
ginia. The Ohio Conference delegation impressed 
me very strongly. It included James B. Finley 
and Joseph M. Trimble, whose resolution was the 
one at last adopted, and it included, also, William 
H. Raper, who impressed me as the noblest Roman 
of them all. Edmund S. Janes and L. L. Hamline 
were elected bishops. 

In more orderly and elaborate form, a few years 
ago I carefully wrote up my impressions of that 
General Conference. It is too valuable as a his- 
torical narrative, so detailed, not to put it into 
these pages. It is as follows, viz. : 

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF THE HISTORIC 
CONFERENCE OF 1844. 

Some months since a call was made through the 
press to ascertain how many members of the General 
Conference of 1844 were still living. Six or seven 
responded to the call. One of them — ^James M. Jame- 
son, of the Ohio Conference — furnished the Western 
several interesting papers on the subject, giving his 
recollections of the men and the action of that body. 
They had rare value as historical contributions. No 
call has been made for papers from those who were 
present as spectators only at that memorable Confer- 
ence. Yet it may add a chapter, not without value, 
if I shall furnish my personal recollections and im- 
pressions of that historic body, not as a member, but 
as a deeply interested onlooker. 

Bishop James O. Andrew had become a slave- 
holder by marriage with a lady who owned slaves. 
He had been elected bishop twelve years before as a 



THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1844. 43 

non-slaveholding minister. He could not have been 
elected bishop if he had been a slaveholder. There 
has never been a moment in the history of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church when a slaveholding minister 
could have been elected a bishop. Francis A. Hard- 
ing — a member of the Baltimore Conference — had 
married a slaveholding woman, and so violated a rule 
of the Discipline, as the Baltimore Conference held. 
For this, as he refused to disentangle himself by manu- 
mitting his slaves, the Conference suspended him. 
From this decision he appealed to the General Con- 
ference of 1844. The decision of the appeal sustained 
the action of the Baltimore Conference. 

Bishop Andrew's case was finally settled by adopt- 
ing a resolution offered by J. B. Finley and J. M. 
Trimble, which, after reciting the complications of 
the episcopacy with slavery, and so marring Bishop 
Andrew's acceptability as a general superintendent, 
declared "that it is the sense of this General Confer- 
ence that he desist from the exercise of this ofiice so 
long as the impediment remains." This was carried 
by a vote of iii to 69. Before the Conference assem- 
bled in New York, and during its session, public ex- 
citement had become strong and intense. Abolition- 
ism had become widely prevalent in the non-slavehold- 
ing States. Hence the meeting of the Conference, the 
action expected to be taken, and the action, as stated 
above, actually taken, aroused strong and general 
agitation and excitement. The results of that action 
in the division of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
and later in the attempted dissolution of the Federal 
Union, and also in the bloody Civil War which en- 
sued, have ever since given a wide, living, and perma- 
nent interest to the General Conference of 1844 and 
its action. 

For two weeks, from day to day, with the liveliest 



44 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 



interest in its doings as an Abolitionist, I sat as a 
spectator in the gallery of Green Street Church, New 
York, and watched the proceedings. The whole scene 
was one of vivid, thrilling interest. It made an im- 
pression on my mind never effaced. All the incidents 
and conditions are as distinct in memory as though 
occurring but yesterday. The grouping of the lead- 
ing delegations, and also the persons, features, forms, 
and voices of the chief leaders and movers of thought 
in the body, as I now recall them, are as distinct in 
memory as when I sat there forty-eight years ago, and 
observed them. Upon the left of the pulpit were the 
South Carolina and Georgia delegations. In the same 
vicinity, and on both sides of the aisle, were the other 
principal Southern delegations. 

On the right-hand side of the pulpit, and extending 
up the seats on that side of the house, were the New 
York, Baltimore, and New England delegations. 
Across the aisle from them, and extending toward the 
rear of the house, were the Philadelphia, Oneida, Troy, 
Genesee, Pittsburg, Ohio, and other delegations. In 
fact, the Southern Conferences were ranged on one 
side of the house, and the Northern and Border Con- 
ferences were on the other side of the house. This 
could not have been a coincidence. It must have been 
designed. I do not claim exact accuracy in the detail 
of these statements. Substantially, they are correct. 

In the Virginia delegation were two noted men — 
John Early, an elderly man, of coarse features and 
severely plain countenance. He was afterwards a 
bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He 
held the office some years. His marked persistence in 
gaining and holding the floor, and his having his say 
on nearly all questions, made him conspicuous. One 
of his colleagues, a brilliant man, was William A. 
Smith. Plis fervid eloquence, and bold, almost reck- 



PERSONNEL OF THE DELEGATIONS. 45 



less Statements, excited admiration. They utterly 
failed to move the solid North from their convictions. 

Among the many celebrities in that memorable as- 
sembly who personally impressed me, I name the fol- 
lowing, with the Annual Conferences they represented: 
From the Georgia Conference were. A. B. Longstreet, 
Ignatius A. Few, and Lovick and George F. Pierce — 
father and son — both distinguished men, the latter 
afterwards a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South. 

Of the ten New York delegates, four were strongly 
marked — Nathan Bangs, George Peck, Stephen Olin, 
and Peter P. Sandford. Of the seven from the Troy 
Conference, Tobias Spicer, a veteran, and Jesse T. 
Peck, for the first time a delegate, deserve mention. 
Genesee Conference was ably represented by Gleezen 
Fillmore, Samuel Luckey, and six others. Silas Com- 
fort and D. Holmes, Jr., and five others, answered 
from old Oneida Conference. William Hunter, 
Homer J. Clark, and John Spencer^ with their four co- 
delegates, held up the credit of the Pittsburg Con- 
ference. 

Ohio Conference had a strong delegation of eight — 
Charles Elliott, William H. Raper, Joseph M. Trimble, 
James B. Finley, Leonidas L. Hamline, and others. 
They were men of very fine presence. This Confer- 
ence was honored in several ways. Finley and Trimble 
presented the famous resolution in the Bishop Andrew 
case. Finley looked the grand old pioneer and chief- 
tain that he was. Trimble was youthful and ruddy. 
L. L. Hamline rriade the eloquent argument which 
carried the Conference as by storm to the adoption 
of the Finley-Trimble resolution. Philadelphia Con- 
ference had Levi Scott and John P. Durbin and four 
others. 

Kentucky Conference had Henry B. Bascom and 



46 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

Hubbard H. Kavanaugh. Both of them afterward be- 
came bishops m the new organization. Tennessee 
Conference had Robert Paine, afterwards a Southern 
Church bishop; John B. McFerrin, Book Agent and 
editor, and later a missionary secretary; A. L. P. 
Green, and others. Wihiam Winans and B. M. Drake 
were of the Mississippi Conference. 

From Baltimore Conference, John A. Collins, 
Alfred Griffith, and Henry Sheer showed themselves 
strong men and masters in debate. W. M. Wightman, 
William Capers, and S. Dunwoody, from the South 
Carolina Conference, were conspicuous. The two 
former became bishops in the new Church organiza- 
tion. The personalities of Olin, Durbin, George Peck, 
Nathan Bangs, H. B. Bascom, and others were 
strongly marked. These gave them a ready and wide 
recognition as men of power. 

I can not distinctly recall the position in the audi- 
torium of the delegates from the Mississippi Confer- 
ence. One of them greatly and honorably distin- 
guished himself — William Winans, D. D. He was a 
native of Clermont County, Ohio. He had been many 
years in the South. He had taken in slavery by inocu- 
lation, as it were. It struck in on him deeply. He 
was intensely and aggressively pro-slavery, a more 
vehement and vigorous defender of the ''peculiar in- 
stitution" than were those "to the manner born." A 
wide Byron collar, buttoned at the throat, and worn 
without cravat, was the neck-dress ; heavy locks of 
black, flowing hair, worn long. His general dress 
was somewhat neglige. His voice was strong and ring- 
ing. I heard him deliver an able and stirring address 
on ''African Colonization." He spoke loud and rap- 
idly. During the speech of an hour his face was 
flushed; the veins on his forehead stood out like whip- 



GENERAL CONFERENCE, 1844. 



47 



cords ; his trumpet-tones rang out to the remotest 
parts of the great Broadway Tabernacle. 

A passage between Drs. G. F. Pierce and J. T. 
Peck will have flavor. They were on opposite sides 
of the house, and of the question as well. They fleshed 
their maiden swords on the engrossing question. 
Neither of them had ever been a delegate. Dr. Pierce 
said: ''We have unity and peace, and seek it because 
of its effect on the connection ; and I believe to-day that 
if the New -England Conferences were to secede, the 
rest of us would have peace. There would be religion 
enough left among us to live together as a band of 
brothers." He also spoke of New England as the 
prime source of all the difficulty, and that, but for 
her, he beHeved the residue of the Church would be 
the gainer by it. 

Dr. J. T. Peck said: "The brother from Georgia 
says this measure will not save us from secessions. 
We shall have secession from New England! Sirs, as 
the name New England struck my ear, I felt a thrill 
of the most intense interest. But the reverend gentle- 
man proceeded to say, 'They are busybodies in other 
men's matters! A thorn in the flesh! A messenger 
sent to buffet us!' And alluding, as I understood him 
to do, to a certain movement in New England, and 
certain principles on which that movement was based, 
he called it 'the foul spirit of the pit, the judgment of 
perdition,' etc. . . . But my friend from Georgia 
says: 'Let New England go! I wish in my heart she 
would secede! And joy go with her, for I am sure she 
will leave peace behind her/ Let New England go! 
I can not forget this exclamation. It vibrates in my 
soul in tones of grating discord. Why, sir, what is 
New England, that we should part with her with so 
Httle reluctance? New England! The land of the 



48 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

Pilgrims, the land of our venerated fathers in Israel, 
the land of Brodhead, of Merritt, of the reverend 
man at my side" — pointing to George Pickering — "and 
a host of worthies whom we have delighted to honor 
as the bulwarks of Methodism in its early days of 
primitive purity and peril. Let New England go? 
No, sir, we can not so easily part with the pioneer land 
of the devoted and sainted Jesse Lee." 

When the heat of the wordy battle had passed 
away, apologies were in order for any severe, cutting 
personalities, which, without intention, might have 
been uttered. Those of Dr. Peck were profuse and 
ample. Pierce's reply, in substance, was, that he 
trusted that he had not said a word which would ruffle 
a hair on the head of his worthy antagonist. When it 
is remembered that Dr. Peck's head was completely 
innocent of hair, the laugh which followed this sally 
of Dr. Pierce will be easily accounted for. 

After the Finley-Trimble resolution had been 
adopted, and the time had come for the election of two 
bishops, to the surprise of very many, Edmund S. 
Janes, not a member of the Conference, was elected 
bishop. George Peck had been much talked of as the 
coming man for a bishop. He had been editor of the 
Christian Advocate and Journal and of the Quarterly 
Bcview for several years. If a bishop had been elected 
in 1840, he would undoubtedly have gained episcopal 
honors. There was a genuine disappointment at Dr. 
Peck's failure to be elected, and, as intimated, a sur- 
prise at Janes's success. 

Bishop Janes's accession to the office was attrib- 
uted to the solid vote of the Southern delegates, and 
probably some votes from some of the Northern Con- 
ferences. Three or four reasons were alleged as prob- 
ably causing the preference for Mr. Janes over George 
Peck. All through the hot debate in the Conference, 



ELECTION OF BISHOP JANES. 



49 



while Dr. Peck had not said severe and pungent things 
upon the question in hand, yet he had voted with the 
North on all the phases of the case as, one by one, they 
reached the voting stage and it was well understood, 
South and North, that Dr. Peck was a decided anti- 
slavery man, if not actually an Abolitionist. Mr. Janes, 
not being a member of the General Conference, he 
antagonized no section nor party, and while it was be- 
lieved that Mr. Janes was a Democrat in his political 
leaning, and that his sympathies were with the South 
and her institutions, he had, during the winter preced- 
ing the General Conference, made the tour of the en- 
tire South as financial secretary of the American Bible 
Society; and so had visited all the Southern Confer- 
ences and addressed them in that behalf, and had also 
preached for them. It was also held and talked in 
New York and elsewhere, at that time, that the South 
would secede, and they were then preparing and pro- 
viding to do so; and, from the stand taken by Bishop 
Soule, it was conjectured and talked that he would go 
with them, and, not unlikely, the Southern delegates 
hoped that Janes also would go with Soule into their 
Church when it should be organized. 

My host, Mr. Francis Hall, informed me that Mr. 
Janes was present when the Conference voted for 
bishops. He sat in a seat near the rear of the church. 
The tellers announced and counted the ballots in open 
Conference. Mr, Janes kept the tally for his own 
vote, and also of that for the other candidates. When 
the vote for him had reached and passed the majority 
line, he turned to Mr. Hall, who sat next him, and 
said, ''I am elected a bishop of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church." Whatever may have been the sus- 
picions of some and the hopes of others, that Bishop 
Janes would go with the South when they should 
secede, I never heard his loyalty to the Methodist 
4 



50 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

Episcopal Church called in question nor doubted. 
Nor did I ever hear of his doing or saying anything 
then, nor since, to confirm the suspicions expressed 
by some at the time of his election,, that the Southern 
delegates had an understanding and a hope that he 
would join the Church South when it should be or- 
ganized. Mr. Hamline's election was the result of 
his matchless speech, which carried the solid anti- 
slavery vote of the Conference. The bishops who 
were present during" the discussion and decision as 
to Bishop Andrew's case, were Soule, Hedding, 
Andrew, Waugh, and ]\Iorris. During the pendency 
of his case Andrew sat apart from his colleagues. 
He presented a paper setting forth his relation as a 
slaveholder. It was in substance as follows : Sev- 
eral years before an old lady of Augusta, Ga., be- 
queathed to him a mulatto girl, in trust that he should 
keep her until she was nineteen 3^ears of age, and 
that, with her consent, he should then send her to 
Liberia ; and, in case that she refused to go to Liberia, 
he should make her as free as the laws of Georgia 
would admit. She refused to go to Liberia, and re- 
mained legally his slave, although he received no 
pecuniary compensation nor advantage from her. 
Five years before the date of that Conference, the 
mother of his wife left to his wife a Negro boy, and, 
as his wife died without a will^ this boy was legally 
his slave. In the January preceding the General Con- 
ference the bishop married his present wife. She 
possessed slaves inherited from her former husband's 
estate, and belonging to her. Shortly after marriage 
he had secured them to her by a deed of trust. The 
laws of Georgia did not admit of emancipation, so 
that he was a legal slaveholder in those conditions. 

The bishops were, by resolution, invited to speak 
to Bishop Andrew's case, if they should so desire. 



THE GREAT CRISIS. 



51 



Bishop Soule made a long speech against the adverse 
action proposed in reference to his colleague, as being 
lacking in conservatism, and as opposed to the pre- 
vailing usage of Methodism. Later the bishops pre- 
sented a paper to the Conference, signed by J. Soule, 
E. Hedding, B. Waugh, and Thomas A. Morris, re- 
questing the Conference to postpone further action 
in the case of Bishop Andrew until the ensuing Gen- 
eral Conference, and that, in the meantime, the 
bishops could assign to Bishop Andrew such work 
in the slave States as would not be objectionable to 
them, and would not thus ofifend those sections of 
the work where the hostility to a slaveholding bishop 
presiding in a Conference would not tolerate his 
presence. 

The next day Bishop Hedding withdrew his name 
from the paper, the others adhering to their signa- 
tures. The Conference laid the bishops' paper on 
the table by a vote of 95 yeas and 84 nays. 

I close this paper with a brief account of a most 
delightful recollection I have of witnessing, while in 
New York at that time, the dchui of John B. Gough 
in his brilliant career of marvelous power and success 
as a temperance advocate. It occurred in the old 
Broadway Tabernacle, at the May Anniversary of 
the National Temperance Society. It was ten o'clock 
at night. Edward C. Delevan, Esquire, Leonard 
Bacon, D. D., and another, whose name I can not 
recall, had held the vast audience of perhaps three 
thousand souls spellbound by their burning words. 

A seedy-looking young man was introduced to 
the audience as John B. Gough. His name was un- 
known. He had only been reformed some three or 
four weeks. He was thin and cadaverous-looking, 
and unpromising. From all parts of the house he 
was hissed. I sat in the gallery, near to where he 



52 SIXTY- OA^E VRARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



Stood on the platform. He took a firm standing po- 
sition, and closed his lips tightly. I saw his eyes 
flash, as of a purpose he would not relinquish. He 
• waited until the hissing ceased, and then began thus : 
*'Three weeks ago I was kneeling on the new-made 
grave of my wife, murdered by my intemperance. I 
solemnly promised God, that if he would give me 
help, I would mount this fiery steed of the appetite 
for strong drink, and I would draw upon the power- 
ful curb-rein until I brought him back upon his 
haunches." He suited the action to the word with 
such dramatic power that the audience cheered him 
with round upon round, and then for an hour he held 
the vast audience by the magic of his fascinating elo- 
quence, as he has so often done since. 

Recurring to that famous General Conference, 
it was from the sowing of dragon's teeth on that oc- 
casion_, from the muttering of division and of Church 
separation, that, seventeen years later^ secession oc- 
curred, and the battalions of civil war were set in 
this fair land. Our country ran red with fraternal 
blood. Then God buried human slavery in the blood- 
red gulf of war, thus freeing our country from the 
blight and curse of human slavery, and rendering the 
Nation homogeneous and united, a free and happy 
people. 

During my second pastorate in Madison, some 
fifty were added to the Church. 



CHAPTER IV. 



FROM this term of pastoral labor in Madison, 
my next removal was to Binghamton, N. Y., 
seventy miles south. Here were spent two happy 
years. My father had preceded me in this charge, 
and later my eldest brother succeeded me. And 
later still, on my return from Oregon, in 1864-5, 
I was for six weeks pastor of the same old Henry 
Street Church in Binghamton, which I had rebuilt 
during my first pastorate there. The name Pearne 
seemed a favorite one in Binghamton, for the City 
Council called a street by our name. Pearne Street 
is still a full street in that city. Both years were 
those of gracious awakening and outpouring. 
Many souls were converted and added to the 
Church. A very important murder trial was held 
in Binghamton during my pastorate. From my 
ability to write rapidly in shorthand, my services 
were sought in taking down the evidence and the 
arguments of counsel, especially the testimony of 
experts on insanity. The man was acquitted. The 
reason for this was, that the evidence was almost 
entirely circumstantial, and the jury were reluctant 
to convict for capital punishment one against whom 
every particle of the evidence was circumstantial. 

Henry Street Church, in Binghamton, when I 
entered the charge was called, derisively, by the 
toughs, ''the old Eel-pot." It was nearly square, 
very much Hke the four-square city described in 

53. 



54 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

the revelation of St. John the Divine. It was two 
stories high, with a gallery on three sides. This, 
tinder my earnest and unremitting labor, was trans- 
formed into a modern church of due proportions, 
beautiful, comfortable, elegant. The church edifice 
was an education. That newly-modeled church 
improved and elevated the tastes and spirit of the 
people. It was before the days of the Church Ex- 
tension Society. The official members of the old 
Eel-pot Church had purposely nursed and incurred 
an indebtedness of $250, which they would not 
pay, that it might be used as a fender against any 
troublesome Church beggar who might come to 
them for a collection for a needy Church. That 
debt was paid when I went into the repair business. 
That church improvement, costing some $3,000 or 
$4,000, had a charming effect upon the dear old 
Church members. It was like life from the dead. 
The unpaid balance was paid off on the day of dedi- 
cation. For twenty years after its renewal, its walls, 
frescoed and beautiful, echoed the songs of a jubi- 
lant, glad people, when it gave place to an elegant 
structure of modern appointments, costing some 
$40,000 or more. It is doubted that I ever achieved 
so much for the welfare and life of a Church, as I 
did in the remodeling of the old Eel-pot Church 
into a modern and lovely church structure. Bing- 
hamton can never fade from my memory. "It was, 
and it still is, a hallowed place to memory dear. 

My next move was a great disappointment. It 
was intended, doubtless, as a punishment from my 
presiding elder, because I happened to dift'er with 



GREAT SUCCESS ON WYOMING CIRCUIT. 55 



him. I was sent from a second-class station to 
Wyoming, a circuit, almost in the stage of collapse, 
without a parsonage and without much promising 
character as a charge. It required all the nerve 
and all the manliness I could summon to submit to 
it, and go to the place to which I was sent. I 
moved my goods, by pike^ seventy-five miles, and 
they stood in the street twenty-four hours, because 
there was no place to store them. At last we put 
them into an attic, and ourselves boarded the whole 
year in the ladies' boarding hall of the Wyoming 
Seminary. But it was the best year for results of 
any in all my ministerial life up to that time. 
Never since have I had a richer, riper year, nor one 
more full of Divine power, and of grand, blessed 
results. In Wyoming, six miles above Kingston, 
the society seemed to be in a moribund condition. 
I made two successive attempts to hold a pro- 
tracted meeting, but both attempts were utter 
failures. In Hartsough Hollow, Plymouth, and 
Kingston we had precious revivals. 

The fates seemed against us in Wyoming. I 
sent over the mountains for Elisha Harris, an ec- 
centric local preacher. We entered into a compact 
to have a successful revival meeting in Wyoming, 
or die. Instead of dying, we were the liveliest kind 
of human beings. We visited from house to house 
over a radius of three miles in diameter. At length 
the skies gave forth a sound; the slain. of the Lord 
were many. For six weeks the battle raged; the 
work of God was mightily revived. In the whole 
circuit three hundred souls were converted. The 



56 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

persons converted were some of them Deists, Uni- 
versalists, and Newlights. My lieutenant, Elisha 
Harris, staid right by me and with me until our 
victory was won and housed. 

I should describe him before narrating a scene 
in which he very successfully wrought. He was 
entirely unlearned. Beyond reading his Bible and 
writing his name, he knew and could do nothing. 
But then he knew Jesus. He knew the Holy Ghost. 
He knew what salvation meant. He knew men 
too well to be deceived in them or by them. He 
was small in stature and spare; with hatchet face 
and deep-sunken black eyes, which flashed and 
blazed like orbs of Are when he was under full ten- 
sion. His eyebrows were shaggy and overhang- 
ing. He had the most percussive, piercing shout 
I ever heard. After the revival was over, he lin- 
gered a few days in Wyoming. A Universalist 
preacher came to Wyoming to preach. Elisha 
divined his mission. He came to me to say that he 
would meet that vaunting Goliath. I advised him 
to keep away. He said he had to meet him, and 
God would take care of results. When I found he 
would go, I advised him to meet him with the W ord 
of God, and to ask God to keep him from making 
great mistakes. The man came. His sermon was 
a smooth, smart, moral essay. No one could tell 
what his distinctive doctrine was from the sermon. 
Elisha did not like the way the thing lay. When 
the Universalist preacher was through, he gave 
opportunity for any who doubted his positions to 
rise up and call them in question. Elisha sat on the 



ELISHA HARRIS AND THE UNIVERSALIST. 57 

back row of seats, which were higher than the seats 
in front, which had been made for the smaller schol- 
ars. He jumped over the low seats into the middle 
of the schoolhouse floor, and leaped up from the 
floor, perhaps three or four inches. Then he 
shouted "Glory to God!" at the very top of his 
voice. "I say, sir," said he, addressing the minister, 
his eyes flashing fire and his voice of piercing 
power, ''how do they come up in the resurrection?" 
The preacher was dazed and rattled. He did not 
seem to know what to say. He scratched his head, 
and repeated: "Come up? Come up? I suppose 
they get up as a man would get up out of a chair." 
Then Elisha clapped his hands, and again shouted, 
"Glory to God! I have got you." Elisha then 
said: "You prowling wolf of hell, you come here 
to steal back from God's sheepfold the lambs of 
Christ's flock whom we have gathered, and you 
do not know how they come up in the resurrec- 
tion." Then he read in John v, 28, 29 : " 'Marvel 
not at this : for the hour is coming in v/hich all that 
are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come 
forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrec- 
tion of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the 
resurrection of damnation !' And you do not know 
how they come up in the resurrection?" The min- 
ister, seizing his hat, said, "I did not come here to be 
insulted." "Insulted! insulted!" said Harris; "and 
you do not know how they come up in the resur- 
rection!" The man started for the door. Elisha 
started after him sans hat and sans overcoat. The 
man broke into a trot. Elisha trotted after him, 



58 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

calling him a "wolf of hell," and telling him "he 
did not know how they come up in the resurrec- 
tion 1" He literally ran the man out of town. The 
people were in sympathy with Harris, for they 
knew him to be a conscientious, good man. The 
man never came back to look after his lambs. 

One of the converts was a Deist. He had not 
been in Church for years. His conversion was very 
marked. He and his wife joined the Church. They 
were wealthy. They built a thirty-thousand-dollar 
church, and a five-thousand-dollar or ten-thousand- 
dollar parsonage. They sent for me to come and 
dedicate the church. He died a few years since, 
after a life of great usefulness. He was a very 
godly, consecrated man. His wife also became an 
earnest Christian. They have given blessed proof 
of the genuineness of their religion, by their wise 
and liberal gifts of money for benevolent and Chris- 
tian causes. 

During that great revival in Wyoming Circuit, 
Elisha Harris and I visited all the families, shops, 
stores, and manufactories and places of resort, 
where we could find persons, and conversed per- 
sonally w^ith all we met about their souls and their 
spiritual welfare. Among others, I visited Payne 
Pettebone, the person referred to above. I told him 
that I had called to have a conversation with him, 
and as there were others present, he took me into 
his counting-room, and locked the door. I said to 
him: ''First, I wish to invite you to attend meet- 
ing. W e are holding special meetings, and it would 
give me great pleasure to see you there." He re- 



A GREAT DAY — WONDERFUL INTEREST^ 59 

plied that he had not for ten years attended rehg- 
ious meetings, except at funerals. He did not be- 
lieve in them. He was a Deist, he said. He be- 
lieved in God; but not in the Bible, nor in the 
religion of the Bible ; but he was open to conviction, 
and he would read any books I would furnish 
him that would refute his ideas of Deism. I told 
him I could bring him books that had refuted every 
leading point in Deism; but there was a shorter 
and a surer way to come to the truth on this sub- 
ject; and that way was prayer. The God who had 
made him, if he approached him in prayer would 
reveal the truth to him as to experimental religion ; 
and then I proposed to him to spend a few min- 
utes, at stated times, twice each day, and I would 
stop at those times and pray specially for him. It 
was specified that he also was to kneel down and 
pray at those stated times. This was on Wednes- 
day. " I saw him no more until Sunday, when I 
preached to a full house on ''The Day of F'inal 
Judgment." I asked all present who felt their need 
of preparation for the judgment-day, and who 
would pledge themselves to ask God to prepare 
them for the judgment-day, to rise up, and indicate 
both in that way. All in the audience, including 
Mr. Pettebone, arose, except one person. He 
was a very dissipated man. At evening, when 
I invited seekers of religion to come to the 
altar, Mr. Pettebone arose, and said he was going 
forward, but he wished first to make a statement. 
He spoke of the visit I made him on the Wednes- 
day before, and said that the first time he prayed 



6o SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITIXERAXT WORK. 



he was deeply impressed with a sense of God's 
presence; that every time he prayed that impres- 
sion deepened; that the result of it all was, he felt 
himself a sinner in need of a Savior. Then he came 
forward with many others, and the revival went 
forward until hundreds were saved. 

A letter was received by me recently from Rev. 
E. W. Van Schoick, one of my successors on the 
Wyoming Circuit, giving Mr. Pettebone's account 
of his own conversion, which I introduce here : 

CoLDWATKR, Mich., April 28, 1898. 

My Dkar Doctor Pkarxk, — Have you forgotten 
the call Brother Pettebone and I made on you in 
Cincinnati on our wa}' South? We did not stop with 
you very long, but long enough to recall many pleas- 
ant memories of your pastorate in \A"yoming, Brother 
Pettebone's home, where I, too, was pastor in the 
early seventies. ]\Iy pastorate there was very pleas- 
ant and successful, as it was my good fortune to enter 
into your labors of years before. William Swetland, 
Payne Pettebone, Isaac Shoemaker, Daniel A"an 
Scoy, Daniel Jones, and others of great force of char- 
acter, were my Official Board, having been converted 
under your ministry there. 

Payne Pettebone, as you know, was a remarkable 
man. He was converted sitting in his pew while you 
were preaching. As you were discussing the plan 
of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, making it very 
plain and real, Mr. Pettebone said : "Yes, I see it as 
never before ; Jesus Christ alone is the Savior of all 
who receive him. I receive him. I receive him now 
as my Savior." And right there in his seat he re- 
ceived the evidence, which never left him, that God, 



A REMARKABLE CONVERSION. 



6i 



for Christ's sake, had forgiven his sins. What a 
glorious history he made for the Church of his choice ! 
Sincere, conscientious, tried and true, a wonderfully 
successful business man, his thousands, and even 
millions, were all laid at the feet of the Master ; and 
how much good he did by his gifts to Wyoming Semi- 
nary, Wesleyan University, Drew Seminary, and to 
hundreds of struggling Churches, eternity alone will 
reveal. He and his wife gave the beautiful church 
at Wyoming as a thank-offering to the Lord for the 
prosperity with which he had favored them. His 
father-in-law, William Swetland, died before I became 
pastor at Wyoming, but his memory of good deeds was 
as ointment poured forth. Mrs. Pettebone, William 
Swetland's daughter, still lives, and, if anything, goes 
even beyond her father and husband in the munifi- 
cence of her giving, having just presented to Wyom- 
ing Seminary a gymmasium, complete, at a cost of 
over thirty thousand dollars. How little you knew, 
when you won William Swetland and Payne Pette- 
bone to the Church, what you were doing for Meth- 
odism and for the world ! 

And Daniel Jones, one of the most useful men 
m that Church, — have you forgotten how you cap- 
tured him? He had the elements of a great char- 
acter, but was emphatically a man of the world. Be- 
fore you came he did not attend Church at all. But 
you had a way of reading men, and said, "There is 
a man who will be a power in the Church if I can 
once win him." So, in a wise way, you set about 
it. He was very fond of a horse, and, as you saw 
him driving past the parsonage nearly every day, 
evidently watching his horse Avith admiration, you 
said, "I think I have discovered the way to that man's 
heart." One morning, seeing him start toward 
Kingston, you found it convenient, an hour or so 



62 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

after, to take a long walk in the same direction. 
Observing him returning far down the road, you 
turned about, and trod your weary way toward home. 
Your walk indicated that you were very tired. You 
were red in the face. You were wiping the perspira- 
tion from your brow. As he came near he could not 
fail to see J;iow fatigued you were, and, as a man of 
generous impulse would be supposed to do under 
like circumstances, invited you to ride. Of course 
you . accepted, and quickly turned the conversation 
to the subject of horses. You saw that he was fond 
of a horse, and remarked that you, too, loved a horse, 
and were so pleased to ride behind such a noble 
animal as his — did n't know when you had had such 
a treat. All the way to Wyoming you conversed on 
the good points of that horse, not even mentioning 
religion to him. When he drew up in front of your 
house, you said, as you were getting out of the buggy, 
"How much I have enjoyed my ride and my chat with 
you ! I do n't know how I can repay you, unless 
you take it out in preaching. By the way, I do n't 
remember seeing you at Church since I came/' 
"Well, to tell you the truth, I have n't been to the 
Church in years, but I think I must drop in and 
hear you," was his reply. He did "drop in," and 
not many weeks afterward was converted, and soon 
became one of the useful officiaries of that Church. 

I rejoice that it has been my pleasure to know 
you. I have watched your work with delighted in- 
terest, and am so thankful that, after such a long- 
term in the ministry, both in the pastorate and pre- 
siding eldership, your eye is not dim, your natural 
force is not abated, and you are still abundant in 
labors and in honors. God bless you! 

Very cordially yours, 

R. W. Van Schoick. 



CHAPTER V. 



HILE upon the Wyoming Circuit I gatli- 



V V ered up the items about Bishops Asbury 
and McKendree which follow, and to these I sub- 
join a legend of Asbury in Tennessee, from an eye- 
witness, which enhances the value of the incident. 
In addition, I furnish the proof of Mrs. Denison's 
correctness in my narrative of her. 

FRANCIS ASBURY— PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 

My father's library, during my boyhood, contained 
the standard Methodist books — Wesley, Watson, 
Fletcher, and especially Asbury's Journal. The last, 
and Wesley's Journal, were eagerly devoured by me 
for the adventures they recorded. No work of fiction 
ever so absorbed me, nor was equally interesting to 
me, as these Journals. Asbury's Journal filled me 
with the highest admiration for the first American 
bishop and his marvelous heroism as a pioneer. I 
often wondered whether I should ever, in any con- 
siderable measure, equal his privations and the ad- 
venturous incidents through which he so bravely and 
cheerfully passed. And yet I myself have been in 
perils of waters and perils of robbers as exciting as 
those he records. 

In my five years of itinerant labor in East Ten- 
nessee, I have preached and held quarterly-meetings 
at the eastern base of the Cumberland Mountains, 
at a place called Bean Station, where Mr. Asbury 
and his comrades were accustomed to wait until a 
sufficient number of travelers would gather to enable 




64 SIXTY-OJVE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

them safely to cross the Cumberland Gap into Ken- 
tucky. The legends of his sojourns at the station 
were current when I traveled the Knoxville District, 
in 1865 and later. 

When, in ni}^ early teens, I became a traveling 
minister, sixty years ago, I listened to the folk-lore 
of the elder Methodists in my charges about the 
movements of the earlier leaders of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. But I was always specially at- 
tentive to those which related to the grandest hero 
of them all. I record in this paper two legends of 
the pioneer bishop, which have never been published. 
In 1847, 1848, and 1849, I traveled the first of those 
3^ ears the Wyoming Circuit in Pennsylvania, and the 
last two in Wilkesbarre. Wyoming Circuit included 
all the west side of the classic American ground, 
called the Wyoming Valley, which the pen of Camp- 
bell has immortalized in his "Gertrude of Wyoming." 
On the circuit, near New Troy, as it was then called — 
Wyoming as more recently known — lived the widow 
Elizabeth Denison, a lady of more than fourscore 
years, who still retained her mental powers in full 
vigor. She was a daughter-in-law of Colonel Nathan 
Denison, a colonel in the Revolutionary army, de- 
tailed at the time of the Wyoming massacre in the 
Wyoming Valley. July 3, 1783, Colonel Denison and 
Colonel Zebulon Butler led the forces of the volunteers 
out from Forty Fort, near the middle of the valley 
north and south, to the bloody holocaust which over- 
took them, as the result of an ambuscade into which 
they were decoyed by the apparent retreating of the 
Indian and English troops, until those enemies had 
surrounded them and slain them in cold blood. Of 
two hundred and thirty persons, mostly boys and 
young men, and quite old men in that forward move- 
ment, one hundred and seventy were slain. Only 



BISHOP ASBURY IN WYOMING. 



65 



fifty escaped. Mrs. Denison, who was a member of 
my Church in New Troy, and who was a girl of only 
eight years when the massacre occurred, would nar- 
rate to me the thrilling events of those perilous times. 
The monument commemorating those scenes stands 
just below New Troy. Among other incidents, she 
related to me the particulars of a prolonged visit to 
her home, made by Bishops Asbury and McKendree.* 
She was at the time a young bride, having married 
the son of Colonel Denison. The two bishops had 
called there for a stay of some days. 

Asbury's Journal records three visits which he 
made to Wyoming. The first one he mentions, oc- 
curred July 2, 4, 7, 1793. He makes these notes on 
that visit : 

"Jtily 2 — After preaching at Sunbury, June 28th, 
on 'The Grace of God, which appeareth unto all men,* 



^ An article in the Northern Christian Advocate, April 13, 
1898, enables me to fix the approximate date of this visit of 
Asbury and McKendree in 1814. The article is illustrated by 
a cut of the barn in which Asbury preached on that occasion. 
The text from which Bishop Asbury preached is given. This 
short article is of historic value : 

" Barn in which Asbury Prkached About the Ykar 1814. 

"About the year 1814, Bishop Asbury, accompanied by 
Bishop McKendree, passed through Brooklyn, Pa., when on 
their way from a Northern Conference to the Baltimore Confer- 
ence. They tarried long enough to hold a service in Brooklyn 
in a barn, an excellent cut of which is herewith given. The 
text from which Bishop Asbury preached was i Sam. xv, 14 : 
'And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the 
sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I 
hear?' 

"That the cut represents the identical barn in which the 
sermon was preached is fully authenticated, though it does 
not now occupy the same site that it did at that time. Many 
years ago it was moved to the place it now occupies, and the 
5 



66 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



we wrought up the hills and narrows to Wyoming. 
We stopped at a poor house; nevertheless, they were 
rich enough to sell us a bushel of oats ; and they had 
sense enough to make us pay well for them. We 
reached Mr. P.'s at about eleven o'clock P. M. I 
found riding in the night caused a return of my 
rheumatic complaint through my breast and shoul- 
ders. But all is well. The Lord is with us." 

"Thursday, 4th — Being the • anniversary of the 
American Independence, there was a great noise 
among the sinners. A few of us went down to 
Shawanee (Plymouth), called a few people together 
from their work, and found it good for us to be there." 

"Sunday, July 7th — The Lord has spoken in awful 
peals of thunder. O what havoc was made there fifteen 
years ago! [This was obviously a mistake, or a slip 



addition on the right was con|J:ructed, The large open doors 
show the audience-room in which the service was held. 

"In 18S8 Edward Iv. Paine, son of the Rev. Edward Paine, 
who owned the barn, was a lay delegate to the General Con- 
ference from Wisconsin Conference, and was the oldest lay- 
man of that body, being eighty-seven years of age. He 
stated on the floor of the Conference that he heard Bishop 
Asbury preach the sermon to which reference is made above, 
and on that occasion, which was a memorable one, though 
only thirteen years of age, he gave his heart to God and his 
hand to the Methodist- Episcopal Church, of which he re- 
mained a faithful member until the day of his death. 

"For the picture of the barn and the portrait of Mr. 
Paine we* are indebted to the Rev. G. E. Van Woert, pastor of 
our Church in Brooklyn, Pa., who will furnish excellent pho- 
tographs of the barn in two sizes; the larger, shown in the 
cut, for thirty-five cents, and the smaller for twenty-five 
cents. Brother Van Woert devotes' one-half the profits of 
sales within his charge, and all the profits of sales outside, to 
the payment of the debt on the Missionary Society. The pic- 
ture is worth preserving for its historic associations. Send 
orders to Brother Van Woert." 



ASBURY AND M' KENDREE. 



67 



of the pen, for the scene to which he refers was the 
Wyoming massacre of July 3, 1783, ten years before.] 
Most of the inhabitants were either cut off or driven 
away. The people might have clothed themselves in 
sackcloth and ashes on the 3d, if in white and glory 
on the 4th of July. The inhabitants here are very 
wicked, but I feel as though the Lord would return." 

The bishop must have staid in the valley until 
the 8th, when he started up the Lackawanna over the 
twelve-mile swamp. On this trip he must have trav- 
eled alone, as there is no account of his having had 
a traveling companion until later in life. 

The second visit he made to Wyoming was July 
17, 1807. He says in his entry of that date: 

''Once more I am in W3^oming. We have wearied 
through, and clambered over, one hundred miles of 
the rough roads of wild Susquehanna ! O the pre- 
cipitous banks, wedging narrows, rocks, sidelong 
hills, obstructed paths and fords — scarcely fordable — 
roots, stumps, and gullies !" 

Two days later he speaks of ordaining Thomas 
and Christian Bowman, who were probably ancestral 
relations of our venerable senior bishop, who was 
born and reared near Berwick on the Susquehanna, 
twenty miles below Wyoming Valley. The next 
visit to Wyoming which he mentions, is in 1812 : 

"August 4th — We arrived at Father Bidlack's^ and 
went forward to Wilkesbarre. [Father Bidlack was 
a Revolutionary soldier and a Methodist traveling 
preacher, who lived across the river from Wilkesbarre, 
at Kingston, and a mile distant.] The court was sit- 
ting, and a sermon was expected. My subject was, 
'Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.' 
They gave me the court-room. 

"August 5th — We came along down by the turn- 
pike, and rough enough we found it. Farewell to 



68 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

Merwine's. I lodge no more there, whisky-hell, as 
most of the taverns here are. . . . We lodge 
with George Custer, Wyoming." 

"Friday^ 7th — I am still. I abstain. In the even- 
ing we had an assemblage of people, and Brother 
Boehm spoke to them in German." 

Henry Boehm was at this time Bishop Asbury's 
traveling companion. He was nearly one hundred 
years old, erect, and well preserved when I last saw 
him. He was present at the dedication of the Metro- 
politan Church in Washington in the sixties, and took 
part in the services — pronounced the benediction or 
offered a prayer. 

It is quite evident that neither of these three visits 
to Wyoming was the one detailed to me by Mrs. 
Denison, because Bishop McKendree was not with 
Bishop Asbury at either of these visits, and this is 
apparent from the journal of the bishop. Asbury was 
less regular and careful in his Journal as he ap- 
proached the end of life, and he may have been too 
feeble to journalize that last visit, which must have 
been made between 1812 and 181 5, the year in which 
he died, March 31st. 

Mrs. Denison said to me that Bishop Asbury was 
smaller in stature than Bishop McKendree, that he 
was a great sufferer from the infimities of age and 
from his lifelong infirmity, the rheumatism. He was 
neither petulant nor brusque ; yet he was somewhat 
abstract, taciturn, and reserved. He seemed at that 
time to live apart, and to commune with himself. 
Bishop McKendree was gentle, affable, and free in 
his conversation, and very full of wisdom and instruc- 
tion in his communications. Bishop Asbury was thin 
and weak from his long and severe journey ings and 
from his great sufferings. Bishop McKendree was of 
full habit, apparently in perfect health, exceedingly 



ASBURY AND M'KENDREE, 



69 



approachable, putting his associates completely at 
their ease. He was well informed ; a good converser, 
drawing those in his company to himself by an irre- 
sistible fascination of manners, and by a most mag- 
netic personality. 

Colonel Denison, who, at the time of the visit of 
these two bishops, was himself well stricken in years, 
was greatly charmed and delighted with Bishop 
AlcKendree. He said that the bishop jvas so well 
posted in all matters that he would elicit admiration 
in any official public position he might have held. 
"Indeed," said the colonel to Mrs. Denison, ''.Bishop 
McKendree is well-fitted to have been a United States 
senator. He would have graced the position." 

Mrs. Denison said to me that Bishop Asbury im- 
pressed all who saw him as being a very devout, 
earnest, and godly man, who walked in close fellow- 
ship with God. 

Bishops Asbury and McKendree were scarcely 
ever absent from the Annual Conferences. I read 
of but two instances in the West where the Confer- 
ence was presided over by any one but the bishops. 
William Burke once presided in the absence of both 
the bishops. , In the Ohio Conference, which met in 
Cincinnati in 1814, both the bishops, Asbury and 
McKendree, were present. But Asbury was too ill 
to preside, and McKendree had been injured by a 
fall from his horse, and John Sale was appointed by 
the bishops to preside. In his Journal, Asbury says : 

"Monday, 5th (September) — I made an attempt 
to speak a few words from Philippians ii, 2-5. We 
have progressed in our business very well, though 
deprived of the presence of the bishops to pre- 
side. . . . John Sale presided with great pro- 
priety. John Sale finished the plan of the stations 
from a general draft I furnished him. We closed our 



70 SIXTV-OiYE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



labors in peace. One thing I remark, our Confer- 
ences are now out of their infancy. Their rulers can 
now be called from among themselves. ..." 

From 1865 to 1868 I was presiding elder on the 
Knoxville District in East Tennessee. During this 
term I learned several incidents about Bishop Asbury 
from those who had been eye and ear witnesses of the 
events described. I give but one of them, as this 
gives a good, general idea of the bishop's habit in 
bis annual tours over the continent, always by private 
conveyance, and always sharing the hospitality of the 
pioneers, which was accorded to him with a regal 
largeness, freedom, and munificence. On one of my 
tours near Dandridge I formed the acquaintance of 
a gentleman who lived there, and who was then a 
person of seventy years or more. He said that one 
morning, when he was quite a young man, he was 
going out through the gate which opened into his 
father's extensive estate, and upon which his father 
was yet living, when he met an aged man who had 
just driven up to the gate in a light carriage. The 
stranger informed him that he was Bishop Asbury, 
and he was just about driving in to spend the day 
and night wath the young man's father. The bishop 
inquired whether the young man's father still lived 
there, and, learning that he did, the bishop said: 
"Then I will go in, and stay with him for the day 
and night." A yoimg man accompanied the bishop, 
whose name I have forgotten, said my informant. 
This young man was John Wesley Bond, father of 
the distinguished Rev. Dr. Thomas E. Bond, who, at 
a later period, was editor of the Christian Advocate, 
New York. My informant said : 'T went back with 
them. It was arranged to have preaching at our 
house that evening. I was sent out through the 



AN INCIDENT IN BISHOP ASBURY'S LIFE. 7 1 

neighborhood to give notice of the meeting, and to 
invite the neighbors to attend it. A large number of 
people assembled. The young man preached. Mr. 
Asbury had retired. The bed was curtained in the 
old-fashioned way, with high curtains and a canopy 
At the close of the sermon, the bishop said: Tlease 
draw the curtains.' The bishop sat up in the bed, 
. and talked at some length with much freedom, pathos, 
and power. 'The people,' said he, *are hungry for the 
Word of God. It should be dealt out to them in 
plain, simple, and loving speech. The gospel needs 
no flowers of rhetoric^ no word-drapery. It is God's 
message of love and peace to a fallen world and to 
a perishing race. The message should be direct, clear, 
urgent.' He then exhorted the people in a most ten- 
der, pathetic, urgent manner to seek God, and to 
prepare for eternity. 'This,' said he, 'is probably the 
last time I shall ever be with you on earth. O, will 
you not be entreated to be reconciled to God? Shall 
we sit down together in the kingdom of God, to go 
out no more forever?' There v/as a general time of 
weeping and shouting. All seemed deeply afifected 
by the kindly, tender, persuasive words of the bishop." 
This was his last visit in that State. On Sabbath, March 
31, 1816, he passed through the gates into the ever- 
lasting city of God. This visit is recorded in Asbury's 
Journal. It occurred in October, 1814, and it is thus 
related in two or three lines : 

"Monday, 17th — We came rapidly through Dan- 
dridge to William Turnley's. Here are kind souls. 
I was sick, and soon in bed ; but John Bond preached 
for them." 

The foregoing reminiscences are published in this 
form by the Cincinnati Conference Historical Society, 
with the permission of the Conference itself. The 



72 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

following incident anent Bishop Asbnry in New York, 
is furnished by the late Asbury Lowrey, D. D. It is, 
of course, authentic : 

"Richard Goodwin, a relative of my father, was a 
local preacher, living at Goodwin's Point, Cayuga 
Lake, New York. He was elected to elder's orders, 
probably at some Conference when he could not be 
present. He afterwards met Bishop Asbury on the 
road somewhere. The facts being made known to 
him. Bishop Asbury dismounted and ordained him an 
elder, under a tree. Whether there were three elders, 
or none, to lay hands on the head of Goodwin, with 
the bishop's, I am not informed. The stream of apos- 
tolic succession doubtless forms many eddies as it 
comes down to us from Wesley and Asbury. 

"A. LowRDY. 

"P. S. — Richard Goodwin was the father of the 
Rev. WilHam H. Goodwin, D. D., of East Genesee 
Conference, of whom, perhaps, you have some 
knowledge." 

The next two years I w^as pastor of the First 
Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilkesbarre, then 
and now one of the richest and strongest Churches 
of Methodism. It was then the best charge in the 
old Oneida Conference. My compensation had 
come in double measure and form, for what I had 
supposed to be a punishment from my presiding 
elder. We built a twenty-thousand-dollar church 
the first year of my Wilkesbarre pastorate. It will 
assist in understanding the financial conditions of 
such charges in those earlier times, when the facts 
are stated. The parsonage was a small, humble 
dwelling, v^^hich could then have been built for six 



THE OLD AND THE NEW. 



73 



hundred dollars or seven hundred dollars. The sal- 
ary, all told, was four hundred dollars a year and 
the parsonage. This was the most they had ever 
paid. A one-hundred-and-thirty-thousand-dollar 
church has replaced the brick twenty-thousand- 
dollar one of forty-eight years ago; an organ, cost- 
ing thirty thousand dollars, is its latest acquisition, 
and a parsonage worth ten thousand dollars or 
more has succeeded the humble six-hundred-dollar 
house in which I and the men who preceded me 
had lived. Many were added to the Church by pro- 
fession during my pastorate in Wilkesbarre. The 
last month of my stay here my wife was very ill with 
the typhoid fever. She became well enough for 
me to remove her to her sister's, in Madison, N. Y., 
one hundred and forty miles away, while I should 
attend Conference. 

I was appointed from Wilkesbarre to Owego, 
in New York State. I moved my goods to Owego 
on wagons, seventy miles. I set up the furniture 
in the parsonage, and put down the carpets, and 
then I went up seventy miles to Madison, to re- 
move my wife to my new charge. She was too ill 
to be moved, for she had had a relapse. On Satur- 
day I returned from Madison to Owego, and slept 
in the parsonage. On Sunday morning I woke up 
with a splitting headache. I was tmable to eat. 
But I took a strong dose of pepper-tea, and went 
into the pulpit to preach my opening sermon for 
the year. A high fever was on me. I soon be- 
came delirious. I preached on incoherently. The 
brethren took me out of the pulpit, and put me in 



74 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

bed, a victim of typhoid fever, as it proved to be. 
I lay forty-two days in a state of coma; and as I 
got better of the fever I was seized with pneumonia, 
and came very near dying. The year was a broken 
one. And yet we had a good degree of success. 
About forty or fifty professed conversion. This 
was my last charge in the old Oneida Conference. 

The Conference met in 1850 at Honesdale, Pa. 
I was appointed, by request of my host, a New- 
light preacher, to preach in his church. I had 
ascertained that the Church was Arian in belief — 
denying the Divinity of Jesus Christ, the depravity 
of men, the personality of the Holy Spirit, and the 
conversion of sinners by the washing of regener- 
ation and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. My 
character had passed as approved on Thursday. I 
went to the Newlight, or so-called Christian, 
church to preach. I said to myself: "This is your 
last and only opportunity to free your skirts from 
their blood, by openly opposing and exposing their 
doctrinal errors, and warning them faithfully of 
their delusions." My text was Deuteronomy xi, 
16: ''Take heed to yourselves that your heart be 
not deceived, and ye turn aside after other gods, 
to serve them and w^orship them." I dwelt upon 
heart deceptions as the most alarming. I instanced 
names and doctrines as being well adapted to mis- 
lead the unwary, and then said: "You call your- 
selves Christians, implying that you have a right 
to that name over your fellow-Christians of other 
names and denominations; and while deceiving by 



ORDAINED DEACON AND ELDER. 



75 



bearing, as exclusive, a name common to all Chris- 
tians, at the same time, by your denial of the Divin- 
ity of Christ and his atoning sacrifice, you crucify 
the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open 
shame." The next morning my character was 
arrested,^the first and only time in my life, for vio- 
lating Christian courtesy. The case was tried, and 
then the Conference passed my character, and the 
affair ended. 

I was ordained a deacon in 1841, in Owego, 
New York, by Bishop Joshua Soule, having con- 
cluded my two years of probation in the Confer- 
ence, and having creditably passed through my 
Conference examination. 

In 1843 I was ordained an elder by Bishop 
Beverly Waugh, in Wilkesbarre, Pa. The occa- 
sion was one of great solemnity and much prayer. 
The ordination took place in a grove. There was 
no church that would hold half the people who 
came out to the services. The sermon was 
preached by John McClintock, D. D., one of the 
most cyclopedic scholars in the entire Church, if 
not in the whole land. 

In the Conference, after my first year of 
probationary Conference life had passed. Bishop 
Robert K. Roberts presided. He was one of the 
most noble and manly-looking of men, and withal 
very saintly in countenance and appearance. He 
preached from Luke xvi, 31: ''If they hear not 
Moses and the prophets, neither will they be per- 
suaded, though one rose from the dead." In the 



76 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

course of his sermon, he said, instead of persuading 
men to turn to God, a spirit from the dead would 
terrify them, and cause 

" Bach particular hair to stand on end, 
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine." 

This quotation from Shakespeare quite won me, 
for I was a great admirer of the English poet of 
Stratford-on-Avon. The congregation was deeply 
moved under the sermon. 



CHAPTER VI. 



INCLUDING my two years of supply work be- 
fore joining the Conference, and the time I 
spent as a probationer and a member of the Oneida 
Conference, there were fourteen years of service. 
As I re-traverse in thought the well-remembered 
scenes and associations of those early years, the 
recollection affords me great satisfaction, and I am 
led to exclaim in gratitude to God, 

"In each event of life, how clear, 
Thy ruling hand I see ! 
Each blessing to my soul most dear, 
Because bestowed by Thee." 

In the work of the ministry, to which my call 
had been strong and unmistakable, I had a glow, 
an inspiration, and a joy exquisitely delightful. 
The call I could not resist if I would, and I would 
not if I could. While I was deeply conscious of 
the weakness and slenderness of my resources — 
educational and otherwise — still there was a charm 
in my loved work which was wonderfully fasci- 
nating. 

One of the supremest pleasures of my life has 
been the abiding conviction that I was in God's 
hands, as an instrument of blessing to men and of 
glory to God. In this feeling there was a singular 

77 



78 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

freedom from care and doubt and uncertainty, and 
from all concern and anxiety. Happy as the lark, 

" My life flowed on in endless song ; 
Above earth's lamentation 
I caught the sweet though far-off strain, 
That hails the new creation." 

The spring season answered to a springtime in 
my soul, day by day. The summer was sweet and 
gentle and beautiful, in correspondence with the 
green pastures into which the Good Shepherd was 
leading me and the still waters that were flowing 
about me. The rich autumnal tints seemed to 
borrow their golden hue from the approaching 
Beulah-land, and every bush aflame with God. My 
Decembers were as pleasant as May. 

Early on a lovely spring morning, as I well re- 
member, when I was riding on my way to an ap- 
pointment, the sunshine and showers were alternat- 
ing, the carol of birds and the sighing of zephyrs 
in the pine-tree tops above me, made a sort of para- 
dise for the moment, and music filled my soul. The 
words I sang I had long known, and while singing 
them my whole soul drank in unutterable bliss. 
These were the words : 

"Ivovel}^ is the face of nature, 

Decked with spring's unfolding flowers, 
While the sun shows every feature, 
Smiling through descending showers. 

Birds, with songs the air beguiling, 
Chant their sweetest notes with glee, 

But to see a Savior smiling, 

Is more soft, more sweet to me.'* 



MARMADUKE PEARCE. 79 

At this point it will be in order to introduce to 
my readers some of the strong, brave men with 
whom I was associated in the old Oneida Confer- 
ence. I published sketches of some of them in the 
Northern Christian Advocate, of Syracuse, N. Y., 
a few years ago. There, I speak of them as old- 
time veterans. 

In my childhood some of the earlier ministers 
of Methodism were guests in my father's home. I 
was old enough to listen inteUigently to their re- 
cital of incidents in their early ministerial travels. 

MARMADUKE PBARCB 

was a marked man. In my young manhood, fifty 
years ago, he was one of my earliest and best- 
known friends. He entered the traveling connec- 
tion in 1811, in the Genesee Conference. After 
four years on circuits, he was appointed presiding 
elder on the Susquehanna District, Pennsylvania. 
Two years more of circuit work within the bounds 
of the Susquehanna District, and then he was trans- 
ferred to the Baltimore Conference. Here, also, 
he was presiding elder on the Northumberland Dis- 
trict, some twenty or thirty miles below his old 
district in the Genesee Conference. After this he 
filled some of the most important charges in Meth- 
odism. He was a delegate in the General Confer- 
ences of 1820 and 1828. In 1848, when I was pas- 
tor in the Wilkesbarre Station, he was my guest 
for several days. He was then eighty-four years 
of age. He was a man of fine presence. He 
preached in my pulpit on that occasion a sermon 



8o SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

twenty minutes long, from Psalm Ixxxiv, ii. The 
effort was a masterpiece of eloquence and power. 

JOHN DEMPSTER, D. D. 

In his earlier years my acquaintance with John 
Dempster was slight. Later, I knew him well. He 
was the son of James Dempster, whom Mr. Wesley 
sent to America in 1774. James Dempster was a 
Scotchman, a graduate of Edinburgh University; 
hence, probably, the marked intellectual power of 
his son. He did not long remain in the Methodist 
body. At the age of eighteen, John was the only 
convert at a camp-meeting in Herkimier County, 
New York. He nobly complemented the scant 
service of his father by a long, brilliant career as an 
itinerant, and by being the father and founder of 
our theological schools. His ministry began in 
1816, and ended with his life in 1863. One year he 
spent in great exposure and hard service in the 
wilds of Lower Canada. Six years he was a mis- 
sionary in Buenos Ayres, South America. Of the 
remaining forty-eight, eighteen were spent in New 
York State, and the others in New Hampshire and 
Illinois. On his return from South America in 
1842 I met him often. His transcendent ability and 
his deep personal devotion elicited admiration. In 
1843, chiring my incumbency at Auburn, N. Y., he 
was present in my congregation, and listened to a 
sermon on the Laodicean Church. At evening he 
was greeted by an immense audience. His sermon 
was forcible and thrilling. Large numbers of his 
former admirers, who had listened to his eloquent 



JOHN DEMPSTER, 



8i 



sermons when he was pastor in that church nine- 
teen years' before, were among his auditors that 
evening. In each of three towns of Central New 
York — Auburn, Cazenovia, and Rochester — he was 
for five years a pastor. In Cayuga District four 
years, and in Black River District three, he was 
presiding elder. Twenty years later, traveling over 
parts of the Cayuga District, I found the fame of his 
great achievements everywhere current. Probably 
no Methodist preacher has ever, for two gener- 
ations, more strongly and permanently than he, im- 
pressed his personality upon a people. That whole 
section, including the cities named, was shaken 
with tremendous awakenings and revivals under 
his ministry. 

Dr. Dempster died November 28, 1863. The 
writer published this notice of the great and good 
man : 

A great and good man has been translated to 
his reward. The California Advocate of December 
loth, announces the death of Rev. John Dempster, 
D. D., at Evanston, Illinois, on the 28th ult. He was 
in his seventy-fourth year. More than fifty years ago. 
Dr. Dempster was converted at a camp-meeting in 
Herkimer County, New York. He was, we believe, 
the only convert of the meeeting; yet eternity alone 
can disclose the measure of good resulting from this 
achievement of that apparently almost fruitless camp- 
meeting. Mr. Dempster was poor and uneducated 
when converted. Grace quickened his naturally vig- 
orous intellect, and roused him, not in vain, to earnest 
endeavor after high mental and moral acquisitions. 
From a condition of marked illiterateness, he became 
6 . 



82 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



an accomplished and profound scholar; from being 
unpolished, even to positive awkwardness and pain- 
ful hesitancy of speech, he reached eloquence of the 
highest order. He was a close, vigorous thinker and 
writer. In his early ministry, Dr. Dempster was emi- 
nently zealous, and successful. Central and Western 
New York have for forty years borne the impress 
of his piety and ministerial efficiency. In Auburn 
and Rochester revivals of unprecedented power and 
extent attended his labors. The two cities named 
have ever since felt the moral impulse then and 
there given. Great as a Christian pastor, mighty as 
an original thinker, masterly as a pulpit orator, Dr. 
Dempster early took rank as a leading man in the 
Church. In the quarterly-meetings which he held 
as a presiding elder, he was greatly successful in oppos- 
ing and confuting infidelity. An instance occurred 
at Marcellus, New York. The leading infidel of the 
place, himself highly intelligent and especially well 
read in skeptical doctrines, made the Doctor his guest. 
They spent the whole night in conversation on the 
evidences and truth of Christianity, the Doctor grap- 
pling and overturning every argument, fact, and 
theory of the learned infidel against Christianity. 
This w^as afterwards admitted by the infidel, who, when 
pressed for the reason of his adherence to infidelity 
after all its props had been swept away, stated that 
where he foun-d one man who could thus refute his 
cavils, he found ten whom he could confuse and who 
could not answer his positions, and he would not 
give up his theory for one man in ten. Dr. Dempster 
was not only great in defending Christianity against 
the assaults of infidelity, but also in elucidating and 
maintaining the doctrines of Christianity against er- 
rorists. An example of this was given the writer 



! 



JOHN DEMPSTER. 



83 



many years ago by a person who witnessed it. At 
a camp-meeting in Jefferson County, New York, the 
Doctor was preaching on the Divinity of Christ. A 
Socinian, who had hstened to him as he advanced 
argument after argument and fact upon fact in sup- 
port of the Savior's Godhead, when the Doctor ad- 
duced the fact that, by the command of the Supreme 
Father, the angels bowed in worship before the only 
begotten Son, forgetting all restraints of time and 
place, sprang to his feet and exclaimed, "He is God, 
he is God !" Dr. Dempster was a member of the Gen- 
eral Conferences of 1828 and 1832, and also of sev- 
eral of the more recent, and at the time of his death 
he was a delegate elect from the Rock River Confer- 
ence to the General Conference of 1864. 

For several years he was a missionary at Buenos 
Ayres, South America, and the Church founded there 
by his wisdom and zeal, still sheds its hght and 
warmth upon the surrounding gloom of a semi-barba- 
rism. The specialty of Dr. Dempster for the last quar- 
ter of a century has been ministerial education in 
Biblical schools. To him belongs the high honor of 
inaugurating and founding theological institutions 
in American Methodism. The Biblical Institute at 
Concord, N. H., and that at Evanston, 111., are monu- 
ments of his zeal and constancy in this noble endeavor. 
He had for several years cherished the purpose of 
founding a Methodist Biblical Institute on this coast. 
Our contemporary says of this : 

"He had long cherished the desire and purpose 
of visiting the Pacific Coast with the design of estab- 
lishing such an institution here. If the California 
Conference had been in circumstances to respond to 
a very generous proposition which Dr. Dempster sub- 
mitted to that body some four years since, his last 



84 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



wish in regard to his probationary mission would 
have been realized. Until very recently — perhaps to 
the last — he looked to this coast with the deepest 
concern, intending to visit us the present winter, and, 
if might be, take initiative measures for the realiza- 
tion of his long-cherished purpose. Summoned to 
a higher sphere, he leaves to others the inspiration 
of his earnest wish and the execution of his noble 
purpose. His name is enrolled among the most emi- 
nent of American ministers. His illustrious example 
of successful devotion to the acquisition of knowledge 
must powerfully stimulate our rising ministry to enter 
and explore all the fields of science that lie within the 
sphere of their high vocation. Dr. Dempster subor- 
dinated all his learning and abilities to the Dominion 
of the Cross." 

We have no particulars furnished of the death 
scene. That, however, is not of material moment. 
Such a life, one so full of God and heaven and duty, 
is am.ple guarantee of the eternal happiness and tri- 
umph of its subject, whatever may have been the 
immediate incidents of the dying hour. The last pub- 
lic testimony we have from the Doctor was given at 
a Conference love-feast recently, the last he attended 
on earth. It is as follows : 

"Speaking at the Conference love-feast at the 
recent session of the Rock River Conference, he said 
that he was converted at a camp-meeting. 'A long 
night of struggle was my lot — a night whose dark- 
ness bordered the world of despair ; but on the rise 
of the natural sun a new sun arose — the sun of eter- 
nity. The clouds, the trees, the leaves, the very stems 
of the trees, were vocal with music, and I joined the 
great concert. My purpose in half a century has 
not changed. You all see, brethren, that in the case 
of John Dempster, the evening shades are lengthen- 



JOSEPH CASTLE. 



85 



ing. The day is far spent, the night is at hand, but 
the path is bright beneath my feet, and bright be- 
yond. I look for the crown of immortahty/ " 

*' O, may we triumph so, 

"When all our warfare *s past 
And dying, find our latest foe 
Under our feet at last.'* 

REV. JOSEPH CASTlvE, D. D. 

Among those well-known by me in the early 
times was Joseph Castle. He was a commanding 
figure. Tall, erect, muscular, but not corpulent, he 
was graceful in form and action. His countenance, 
while in repose somewhat grave, was expressive, 
thoughtful, benignant. His sermons were distin- 
guished by clearness and beauty of expression. 
They were uttered in a full orotund voice. He 
was quite popular and in large demand. His itin- 
erancy began in the Genesee Conference in 1823. 
His first appointment was in Augusta, Canada. 
His next was in Wyoming, Pa. Between these two 
places there were probably three hundred miles of 
distance. Four years later he was stationed in 
Oswego, N. Y. Five years from his joining the 
Conference on trial he was appointed to Wilkes- 
barre. Pa., then, as ever since, one of the leading 
charges in Methodism; then successively in Au- 
burn (two full terms), Ithaca, Utica, Cazenovia, 
Ithaca (second term), Berkshire District. By trans- 
fer in 1839 he became a member of the Troy Con- 
ference. His appointment there was Garrettson 
Station in Albany. Later he went to the Phila- 



86 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

delphia Conference. In 1864, when I attended 
the General Conference which met in Philadelphia, 
he was present at a service at which my father and 
brother and myself officiated. He was then pre- 
siding elder of the Philadelphia District, although 
approaching his eightieth year. 

REV. GBORGB HARMON. 

George Harmon was the patriarch of the Oneida 
Conference, having entered the Philadelphia Con- 
ference in 1808. Charles Giles preceded him one 
year in his entrance into the same Conference ; but 
Harmon was much longer effective. In 1831, Giles 
took a supernumerary relation. In 1836, Giles be- 
came a member of the Black River Conference, 
while Harmon lived and died in the Oneida Confer- 
ence. He was small of stature, silent, reserved, sel- 
dom heard on the Conference floor except to an- 
swer routine questions. And yet he must have been 
a man of rare abilities, even among those about him 
who were justly reputed foremost men. From him 
the writer learned some incidents about Asbury, 
which may hereafter be rehearsed. When the 
writer entered the Oneida Conference in 1839 on 
trial, Harmon was already a veteran in his thirty- 
second year. He was yet vigorous. In that year he 
was appointed to his fourth district, having been 
presiding elder already twelve or fifteen years. Dur- 
ing my acquaintance with him after that, he must 
have been on districts some eight or twelve years 
more. He was appointed presiding elder after hav- 



PADDOCK BROTHERS — DAVID A. SHEPARD. 87 



ing been a traveling preacher only five years. His 
pastoral charges were many of them first grade ; as 
Geneva, Ithaca, Lyons, Utica, etc. After forty- 
five or fifty years of most honorable, useful toil he 
was retired. 

THB PADDOCK BROTHERS. 

Benjamin G. Paddock and his younger brother, 
Zechariah, held leading positions in their day. 
The former entered the traveling connection in 
1 8 10, the latter six years later. Both were from 
time to time effective presiding elders. Both filled 
stations of more than ordinary grade. Benjamin 
G. Paddock was my second colleague in my first 
circuit. 

DAVID A. SHEPARD. 

David A. Shepard was fifteen years my senior in 
the Conference. For several years he was my pre- 
siding elder. He was an able, thoughtful, popular 
preacher, always thoroughly acceptable and useful. 
In one place, where the Reformed Methodists 
were somewhat aggressive in denouncing the 
bishops and leading ministers of our Church as hav- 
ing and wielding great power, Mr. Shepard made a 
speech on the subject. Pie set forth the truth that 
for a great system, and which was grandly effective, 
more power was required than for a small system. 
"As for example," said he, ''no one would think of 
putting a hundred horse-power to turn a coffee- 
mill." Then, applying the illustration to the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, which employed so many 



88 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

itinerants and ministered to the spiritual needs of so 
many hundreds of thousands of people, and com- 
paring the Reformed Methodists, so few in number 
and with so Uttle connectional form, he showed 
the inconsistency of caviling at the greater Church 
for requiring and wielding its greater measure of 
power. 

THE AFRICAN MISSIONARY. 

The short, glorious career of Squire W. D. 
Chase ended at Syracuse, N. Y., in fifteen years 
after it began, and during, or immediately after, 
the session of the Conference of which, for some 
years, he had been a member. His last sermon on 
earth was preached at the Conference, which met 
July 26, 1843, Syracuse. He had been sev- 
eral years a missionary in Iviberia, Africa — long 
enough to take into his system the seeds of death, 
which, alas ! too soon grew to their fatal result. I 
shall never forget the sermon. He knew and we 
knew that the seal of death was upon him. Hence 
he spake as a dying man to dying men. His text 
was Romans i, 5 : ''By whom we have received 
grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith, 
among all nations, for His name." It was the su- 
preme and final act of the missionary returning to 
his home Conference, his farewell to them and to 
earth. It was the grand enunciation and vindica- 
tion of his stupendous w^ork as a missionary, that 
in benighted Africa he had been enforcing ''obedi- 
ence to the faith for His name." 



NOTABLE MINISTERS. 



89 



W. W. NINDK. 

William Ward Ninde was an orator of great 
ability and renown. He was an eminent, illustrious 
minister of Christ, known far and wide for his holy 
life and his able and brilliant, and all too brief, 
career as a preacher and pastor. He entered the 
traveling connection in the Genesee Conference in 
1828. The charges he filled were mostly within 
the present limits of the Northern New York Con- 
fe];ence. They were of fair grade : Oswego, Adams, 
Pulaski, Syracuse, Lowville, Rome. In all of them, 
except Pulaski and Lowville, he staid the full term. 
In Oswego and Adams he was stationed two full 
terms. After a year's work on the Herkimer Dis- 
trict, he finished his short but glorious career Feb- 
ruary 27, 1845. company with Albert D. Peck, 
his successor on the district, I visited him a short 
time before his death. With one or more of his 
children I saw his son, W. X. Ninde (now a bishop). 
He was a bright-looking, flaxen-haired boy. The 
father was fully ready for his departure — peaceful, 
hopeful, happy. He impressed his strong person- 
ality upon all that region. His name is as ointment 
poured forth. 

ElvIAS BOWBN, D. D. 

I must not omit this grand, colossal figure of 
the early times. He was twice my presiding elder. 
Dr. Bowen was a strongly marked man. Of fine 
form and figure, of commanding presence, with 



90 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



abilities far above the average, he wielded a wide 
rehgious influence. He was a strong, aggressive 
preacher, rather than a popular one. His favorite 
weapon was a battle-ax. He was a controversialist, 
rather than an evangelist. He seemed never more 
at home than wdien assailing and refuting what he 
held to be erroneous. In his first district, the 
Wilkesbarre, he preached a most severe and vio- 
lent sermon against Hopkinsianism — a form of Cal- 
vinism then prevalent. His opposition to what he 
deemed untrue and injurious was relentless. On 
one occasion, at a session of the Oneida Confer- 
ence, when Dr. Dempster was present seeking to 
enlist the Conference in favor of theological semi- 
naries. Dr. Bowen preached a sermon, by Confer- 
ence designation and by previous appointment, 
directly and strongly against theological schools 
in Methodism as subversive of the true mission and 
intent of Methodism. During the anti-slavery agi- 
tation he became a most violent and radical Abo- 
litionist. Just before the late Civil War he pub- 
Hshed a book denouncing the compHcity of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church with slavery. The 
war ended slavery. Dr. Bowen's book was there- 
fore unsalable. At the age of eighty he died, in 
1 87 1. In his fifty-six years of itinerant labor he 
filled the leading charges \n New York and Penn- 
sylvania. For twenty-four years he was a presiding 
elder. He was a grand, glorious man. 



CHAPTER VII. 

AMONG the early Methodist preachers in the old 
L Oneida Conference, there were none with 
whom my relations were so pleasant and service- 
able as Jesse T. Peck, D. D., LL. D., who later 
became a popular and useful bishop, and his elder 
brother. Rev. George Peck, D. D. He was my 
preceptor and the principal of the Cazenovia Semi- 
nary, which I attended for two years successively. 
He was present when I made my first public decla- 
mation, and for which I had no relish. I had been 
a local preacher some years, and I stated to my 
principal, and my father's close friend, that I did 
not want to appear on the stage and recite a speech 
of somebody's preparation ; that if he would allow 
me, I would get up and make an address prepared 
by myself; or, if he thought best, I would preach 
a sermon. But he said the rules of the school 
would not admit of my doing so; that perhaps it 
might be well for me to begin in the second grade 
of declaimers, where the declamations were private. 
It was the worst advice he could have given me, 
for it was usual for the lads present on such occa- 
sions to have a roystering time in making fun, and 
laughing at the unfledged orators and their awk- 
ward ways. Then he said, "Pay no more attention 
to the boys that are present than you would at so 
many cabbage-heads." I went on the stage blow- 
ing my nose to show my utter disregard of the 

91 



92 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

presence of the audience; and when I stood upon 
the stage I paid Httle regard to posture or to grace- 
fulness of gesture and action. The boys roared, 
and, to my horror, the principal himself joined in 
the boisterous, tumultuous laughter. I had recited 
one verse of several I had learned (nearly all begin- 
ners select poetry for their declamatio'n exercises), 
when the storm was at its height. Then I stopped, 
and indignantly rebuked the unseemly conduct of 
the audience, including the principal, Dr. Peck. I 
apprehend I became quite natural, and the amuse- 
ment rose to a higher pitch. I was about to leave 
the stage, when Dr. Peck said it would not do to 
be written down a failure in my first attempts at 
speaking in school. I went back and finished my 
recitation. The scene was written by Dr. Peck to 
my father, w^ith the assurance that his son would go 
through, and that he did not need to be concerned 
as to the outcome. After that I did not any more 
practice the speaking drill in the second grade dec- 
lamation class. 

Dr. George Peck attained great honors and dis- 
tinction as editor of the Methodist Review and Chris- 
tian Advocate, 

GBORG^ GARY. 

George Gary was one of the finest-looking of 
men, and one of the best equipped, most fascinat- 
ing, and effective of the Methodist ministers of his 
times. IvCst this statement, and others which will 
follow, should be deemed rather excessive and ful- 
some, as the extravagant estimate of inexperienced 



A MOST REMARKABLE MAN. 



93 



boyhood before riper age had lent its more sober 
and critical judgment, let it be observed: In my 
boyhood for a year Mr. Gary was my honored and 
loved pastor; in my early manhood, after entering 
the Oneida Conference, Mr. Gary for a dozen or 
more years was my contemporary in an adjoining 
Conference (the Black River) while he was yet in 
his full, vigorous manhood. During those years I 
had many opportunities of seeing and knowing 
him, at Conference sessions and at camp-meetings, 
and on other like occasions. A dozen years later I 
succeeded him in the Oregon Mission, and there I 
learned incidents and estimates of him which could 
not be ascribed to the extravagance of youthful 
and immature admiration of one's hero. 

Over o le hundred and four years ago — ^viz., De- 
cember 8, 1793 — George Gary was born in Middle- 
field, Otsego County, N. Y. He was well born — a 
Puritan of the Puritans. In 1630, Arthur Gary and 
his two sons, Nathaniel and William, came from 
England, and settled in Roxbury, Mass. Arthur 
Gary and Nathaniel Gary were his ancestors. Na- 
thaniel Gary was his great-grandfather. At the age 
of nine or twelve years George Gary was converted 
at the family altar in his childhood home. As the 
morning prayer ceased, George still remained on 
his knees by the woodpile in the chimney-corner of 
the old log-cabin. He was weeping and sobbing. 
The minister inquired the reason for his grief. He 
was under conviction of sin. Prayer was offered 
for him, and by him. Then and there, and once for 
all, he was soundly converted. His childhood call 



"94 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

was, like Samuel's, effectual. It staid with him 
through a full and very useful life. 

As now recalled, Mr. Gary was slightly below 
the average stature, perhaps five feet eight, or five 
feet eight and a half inches. He was a blonde, 
with light, flaxen hair, and blue, expressive eyes. 
His head w^as so faultless, and so well adjusted to 
his body, that a Canova might well have envied it. 
His form was somewhat full, but not too much so. 
His pose was admirable. His movement and action 
were grace itself. His manner was extremely 
charming. He was altogether a most fascinating 
man. 

In several aspects his life-story was remarkable. 
On the death of his mother, and while he was yet 
quite young, he went with his uncle to live with 
him in Pomfret, Conn. Thus he grew up in the 
atmosphere of his ancestors, and in their native 
land he began his ministry. Five years after he 
began his ministry in New England, he was trans- 
ferred to the Genesee Conference in New York, 
the State of his birth ; and in the second year of his 
itinerancy in New York he was preaching to the 
people among whom he was born. In 1809, when 
he was fifteen and a half years old, he was ad- 
mitted on trial into the New England Conference. 
His first charge was in Barre, Vt., as third preacher 
on a large circuit. Elijah Hedding, afterward 
Bishop Hedding, was his first presiding elder. The 
next four years were spent on great circuits in 
Maine. In 1814 he was transferred to the Genesee 
Conference, New York, and stationed on Herkimer 



GEORGE GARY, 



95 



Charge in the Mohawk Valley, below and probably 
including Utica. In 1815 he was the third preacher 
on the Otsego Circuit. In 1816 he was on Sandy 
Creek Charge, near Watertown, yet in Oneida 
District. In 181 7 he was stationed in Utica. In 
1 8 18, when he was twenty-four and a half years 
old, he was presiding elder on Oneida District. His 
light hair and ruddy complexion and his short stat- 
ure gave him a most youthful, even boyish, appear- 
ance, while at the same time he was bearing great 
responsibilities. It is not the purpose in this sketch 
to write a full biography of him, nor to give spe- 
cifically the list of his appointments. It will suffice 
to say that for nearly all his ministerial life he was 
a presiding elder. 

From 1844 to 1848 he was superintendent of 
the Oregon missions, under conditions and for pur- 
poses which will be better understood by a brief 
preliminary recital of facts. Commodore Wilkes 
had been sent to the Pacific Coast to survey and 
sound and map our bays and sounds and rivers 
upon the Pacific. While there he visited Oregon, 
especially the Hudson Bay Company's posts, which 
were then under the spiritual direction of the Ro- 
man Catholics. He visited, also, the Methodist 
missions there. By the former of these he was 
toasted and feted. By the Methodist mission- 
aries he was shown a cheerful, generous"^ Christian 
hospitality, and.no more. In his reports to the 
Secretary of the Navy he lauded the Hudson Bay 
Company and the Roman Catholics; and he dis- 
para^;ed the Methodist missions, as conducting a 



96 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

large colonization scheme, rather than a mission 
for souls. 

Dr. Bond, then editor of the New York Advo- 
cate, took up the cry, and but too successfully urged 
the reduction of our material and secular concerns 
in Oregon. Mr. Gary was sent to Oregon to sell 
out all our improvements and possessions there, 
and to reduce the missions to purely reUgious in- 
terests and movements. This he did, wisely and 
successfully, so far as he was directed; although 
the whole policy of the movement, as seen from 
the present standpoint, was the gravest possible 
mistake. The large establishments were then in- 
dispensable to the missionaries remaining in Ore- 
gon. The Hudson Bay Company would let the 
missionaries have no cows, sheep, horses, or hogs 
to raise flocks from, and Mr. Lee was obliged to go 
to California, and procure these necessaries to the 
continuance of the missionaries in Oregon. 

On August 14, 1848, Congress passed an Act 
organizing the Territory of Oregon, in which was a 
clause granting, severally, to each mission station 
then being in Oregon six hundred and forty acres 
of land. Our Church had had six missionary sta- 
tions in Oregon. But by Mr. Gary's direction, 
acting under instructions of the Missionary Board, 
these were sold or given away. But for this we 
would have had three thousand eight hundred and 
forty acres of land in the most eligible points in 
Oregon ; a plant which would have been a founda- 
tion for schools and churches in all that mighty 
empire for all after generations. As it was, we 



SPECIAL TRANSFERS, 



97 



lost all that most desirrble and deserved means; 
while the Roman Catholics there, as in other of 
the frontier Territories^ laid the foundations of re- 
ligious propagandism on the widest scale. 

Mr. Gary's early educational advantages had 
been very limited. Until he became a Methodist 
traveling minister he had never studied grammar, 
and yet he spoke and wrote the purest and most 
correct English. He was a fluent, eloquent, and 
accurate speaker, never violating any grammatical, 
nor any of the rhetorical, rules of speech. This 
skill we attributed to his close observation of the 
best speakers, and to his reading of the most emi- 
nent and correct English authors. If Mr. Gary, 
after his marvelous pulpit abilities were fully ma- 
tured, had become a star transfer from Conference 
to Conference, as has become the usage since his 
time, he would have filled the finest pulpits in the 
strongest charges of Methodism. But at that 
period several things prevented; e. g., he was un- 
ambitious for place, position, and honors ; in those 
times there were few star appointments; transfers 
to special appointments were then rarely made. 
One of the earlier of the kind was that of R. S. 
Eoster from the Ohio Conference to Mulberry 
Street Church, New York, in which he nobly vin- 
dicated the wisdom of the transfer. As indicat- 
ing Mr. Gary's modesty and unaffected avoidance 
of distinction, this example is in point: His friends 
desired to procure for him the honorary degree of 
Doctor of Divinity from Wesleyan University. In 
this they would doubtless have succeeded, and if 
7 



98 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

they had, never would such honors have been more 
worthily borne. Yet his positive refusal to permit 
such procurement of honors restrained his friends. 
He lived and died an untitled Methodist minister. 

Reckoning Asbury as the first American bishop, 
and one of the earliest Methodist itinerants, Mr. 
Gary, who was ordained by Asbury, was, therefore, 
of the second generation of those eminent fathers 
of our Church. This place he has most worthily 
filled. A volume of incidents of his extraordinary 
history, which would have living interest, could be 
written. While Mr. Gary was in some respects a 
brilliant man and a genius, yet he was a man of 
unusually strong common sense. In the dialect of 
these times he would be pronounced a level-headed 
man. I was present at a session of the Conference 
of which he was a member and a presiding elder. 
The character of one of his preachers was under 
examination. The question was asked officially, 
''Is there anything against Brother Blank?" Mr. 
Gary replied, as now remembered : ''There are two 
deaths which a Methodist preacher may die; one, 
the end of this earthly life; the other, the loss of 
the respect and confidence of his brethren and of 
the Church, which means the death of his useful- 
ness as a Methodist minister. The former is infi- 
nitely preferable to the latter. I therefore move that 
Brother Blank be requested to ask for a location." 
Without further discussion the motion prevailed. 

Mr. Gary abounded in humor. Instances decid- 
edly humorous and sometimes peculiarly funny oc- 
curred in his ministerial life. 



AMUSING INCIDENT. 



99 



Traditions of amusing incidents in the career of 
George Gary which display his prevailing genial 
qualities are numerous. I could furnish many of 
them, but brevity requires that I should select but 
a few, and abbreviate them. 

He was often an inmate of my father's house, 
and an inimitable raconteur. Three years after 
he left Oregon I arrived there. One of the first 
things I heard of him after reaching that country 
was that he was a man of habitual cheerfulness, 
who greatly enjoyed relating the incidents of his 
earlier itinerant life, and whose nature was genial 
and kindly. It was also current that he was ap- 
parently much shocked at the homespun freedom 
and the roUicksome ways of the Oregon brethren. 
He was accustomed to admonish them very gravely, 
when starting out on an equestrian trip, to ride 
quietly, either on a walk or a slow trot, and never 
on a canter, and with the dignity becoming Meth- 
odist ministers. They gave me the legend — though 
I had heard it many years before — how on one of 
his first charges he was well-nigh rejected because 
he was so young-looking, his appearance making 
him seem much younger than he really was. This 
is the legend as heard in boyhood, and as rehearsed 
to me in Oregon. Mr. Gary was the third preacher 
on the circuit. The story that the circuit had a 
boy preacher reached the charge before he did. It 
preceded him at every appointment. Before seeing 
him the stewards had laid in objections to the pre- 
siding elder that he was too young and inexperi- 
enced for the chief appointment, where the compe- 



lOO SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

tition was sharp and the people \vere critical. They 
suggested that the boy preacher should be re- 
stricted to the rural appointments, and the chief 
places be left wholly to the service of the senior 
preachers. To this the elder objected, that it would 
be quite unfair to discriminate against the young 
preacher, especially before having heard him at all. 
In this sensible advice the stewards acquiesced. 
When the Sabbath came . for the young man to 
preach in the county town his fame as a boy 
preacher had preceded him. A full house awaited 
his coming with no ordinary interest. Punctually 
he came, and he marched up the aisle with the 
veritable saddlebags. Ascending the pulpit stairs 
and conducting the preliminary exercises with be- 
coming words and manner, he announced as his 
text John vi, 9: "There is a lad here, which hath 
five barley loaves and two small fishes; but what 
are they among so many?" In that sermon the 
boy preacher won his right of way with the people 
of that chief town, whether the stewards were rec- 
onciled to him or not. His sermon was in keeping 
with the genius which led to the selection of the 
text. All admired him, and they said he was very 
mature for such a boy in years and looks. 

His immaturity when he acceded to the district 
was the occasion of some surprise and questioning, 
in which he vindicated his right to the place ac- 
corded him by showing himself fully equal to the 
great trust reposed in him. 

Soon after his incumbency of his first district he 
visited New York. He called Saturday evening on 



GAJ^V AND DR, BANGS. 



lOI 



Dr. Nathan Bangs, who inquired his name and 
place of labor. He gave his Christian name, 
George, and, withholding his surname, he stated 
that he preached in Oneida, in the central part of 
the State. Dr. Bangs gave him the freedom of his 
library, and begged him to amuse himself with 
books, and excuse the Doctor while he completed 
his preparation for the next day's sermon. Sabbath 
morning Gary went with his host to the church, and 
followed him into the pulpit, taking such part as 
was assigned to him. At the close of the sermon 
Dr. Bangs announced a four o'clock afternoon 
service at some uptown ward and schoolhouse, say- 
ing to the audience that a young preacher from the 
country was in the pulpit, who he hoped would fill 
that out-appointment, in which case he, the Doctor, 
would preach there in the church himself. Gary 
arose and declined the schoolhouse service; but he 
said if it was agreeable to them, he would preach 
in that church at the hour named. *'Then," said 
Dr. Bangs, "I will preach uptown and the young 
brother here." His able and vivid sermon pro- 
duced a profound impression. Dr. Bangs saw him 
no more for years ; but the fame of his sermon was 
so great that the Doctor took down the General 
Minutes, and found that his young guest was the 
presiding elder of Oneida District. The next time 
Mr. Gary visited New York, Dr. Bangs, having 
found out his real rank, accorded him fuller cour- 
tesies than on his first visit. 

Mr. Gary was a born orator. The instances of 
his transcendent power over his immense congre- 



I02 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

gations were most remarkable. His great strength 
lay in his dramatic power in rendering thrilling 
Scriptural incidents. He was greatly at home at 
camp-meetings and quarterly-meetings before large 
masses, who had gathered with high expectations. 
He rarely, if ever, disappointed them. His voice 
was clear, musical, penetrating. When animated 
in preaching, his countenance was irresistibly at- 
tractive and expressive. Some of his sermons were 
masterpieces of skill and power. They can never 
be forgotten. A few specimens are given. ^'Daniel 
in the Lions' Den" is one. 

In quiet, deliberate manner he briefly recounts 
the story of the prophet's sentence. This fixes the 
attention of all. Then he describes the den as a 
vault or chamber beneath the surface of the earth. 
The beasts are eagerly looked for. Their roar is 
distinct. But when Daniel is committed to the den 
the Hons are as still as death. The sleepless night 
of the king is set forth, and with the early dawn 
the royal monarch approaches the den. Suiting 
the action and voice to the occasion, the preacher 
advances to the edge of the platform, and looks 
down as if recognizing Daniel. In the most tender 
and pathetic tones he cries out : Daniel ! O 
Daniel ! is thy God whom thou servest continually, 
able to deliver thee from the lions?" and then, in 
changed voice and with ventriloquial effect, the 
answer comes up from the prophet calm, serene, 
confident: king, live forever! My God hath 
sent his angel and hath shut the lions' mouths, that 
they have not hurt me; forasmuch as before him 



GARY'S SERMONS. 



103 



innocency was found in me, and also before thee, 
O king !" The pause, the hushed silence of the vast 
throng, is almost painful. But when at the king's 
command Daniel's accusers are committed to the 
hungry Hons, a rustle is heard, and the people re- 
cover their breath. If it were anywhere else tumul- 
tuous applause would break forth. As it is, many 
are weeping, and some are shouting over Daniel's 
deliverance. To eye and ear and heart the whole 
scene has been most vivid and realistic. In another 
sermon, but with like manner, the three Hebrews 
in the fiery furnace were the theme of impassioned 
words and expressive acting. The audience were 
carried off their seats, and with mingled tears and 
shouts the victory was announced. 

One of his favorite sermons was on Isaiah Ixiii, 
1-6: ''Who is this that cometh from Bozrah?" etc. 
After a calm recital of the text and its brief exe- 
gesis, he advanced to the front of the platform, and 
seized the skirt of his coat and emphasized the 
questions and answers, each in unlike tone and 
manner, and yet in both thriUing his hearers as 
though an angel from heaven had been speaking. 
Besides his vivid impersonations of his characters, 
Gary's voice when he was impassioned had always 
marked expression of tenderness and pathos. The 
other remarkable instances of Gary's power as a 
preacher are these : The first was at a camp-meet- 
ing in the Britain Settlement, north of Syracuse, 
some fifty years ago. He first drew his audience 
to their feet in a dense mass around him, tears flow- 
ing from all eyes. The sermon was preached at the 



I04 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

eight o'clock hour Sunday morning, when many 
were all the time arriving upon the ground. The 
external conditions were all unfavorable to marked 
effect. The sermon was only twenty minutes in 
length. Text, Genesis xix, 17: ''Escape for thy 
life." The minister was in tears. He depicted the 
angel urging Lot to great speed and earnestness in 
escaping from the awful, fiery storm. He then, with 
signal emphasis, applied the warning to all present, 
and in piercing tones and with a voice quivering 
with emotion he uttered the cry of the text, "Es- 
cape for thy life!" One hundred or more fell to 
the ground as though stricken with sudden death. 
Sinners cried for mercy, souls were converted, and 
for hours afterward one continuous prayer-meet- 
ing was kept up, in which scores of souls were con- 
verted. .The other instance of his power at camp- 
meeting was given in the Advocate, by V. M. 
Coryell, in 1879. It occurred in Danby, near Ith- 
aca, seventy years ago. He had just arrived upon 
the ground from the funeral of his wife. As he ap- 
proached the end of his sermon his soul became all 
absorbed in his overwhelming affliction. He was 
now about for the first time to say good-bye to his 
children as orphaned of a mother's tender care. He 
referred to the unprotected loneliness of those dear 
children. Then with overwhelming and indescrib- 
able pathos and with flowing tears he repeated the 
verse : 

" O, what are all my sufferings here, 
If, Lord, thou count me meet 
With that enraptured host to appear, 
And worship at thy feet?" 



AT CAMP-MEETING, 



Then in still more tender tones, he repeated the 
next Hnes: 

" Give joy or grief, give ease or pain, 
Take life or friends away ; 
But let me find them all again 
In that eternal day." 

Then the great fountain of tears was broken up. 
Men cried like children ; others shouted amid tears. 
Unsaved men and women uttered piercing cries. 
Multitudes were converted, and many shouts of 
glory and victory were lifted up. 

Thirty-eight years ago this great and good man 
went up to his crowning. His death was tri- 
umphant. 



Life in Oregon. 



107 



CHAPTER VIII. 



MY transfer to Oregon was peculiar and provi- 
dential. In 1850 I went into Michigan to 
consider and decide upon the question of seeking 
a transfer to that Peninsula. I was so well pleased 
with the country, that I greatly desired to remove 
there, and I decided to do so if I could get a trans- 
fer to the Michigan Conference. Bishop Waugli 
presided at the Oneida Conference in 1850. I 
waited on him, informing him of my wish. He said 
the bishops were favorable to transferring men to 
Michigan. It was a growing State, and more men 
than they had were in demand. But it seemed diffi- 
cult to supply certain places in Oneida Conference 
for that year. He promised me a transfer to Mich- 
igan the next year, if I would stay in my own Con- 
ference the pending year. To this I agreed. 

In 1 85 1 I went up *o our Conference, which 
met in Ithaca, N. Y., fully expecting to be trans- 
ferred to Michigan. My goods were all packed in 
readiness for that removal. Bishop Janes presided 
at the Oneida Conference in 1851. He wished to 
transfer me to Oregon, then a foreign mission of 
our Church. I suppose that wish was pursuant 
to information he had had, that, in 1847, when a 
call was made in the Christian Advocate for two 
men and their wives to go to Oregon as mission- 
aries, Rev. Albert D. Peck and myself had offered 
ourselves in response to that call, with our wives, 

109 



no SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

who were sisters. Our response came too late, 
as William Roberts, of Newark, N. J., and James 
H. Wilbur, of Northern New York, had offered and 
had been accepted before our offer had reached the 
Board. My heart had always been drawn towards 
Oregon as a mission field. Jason Lee and his two 
Flathead Indian boys, in 1839, had been guests at 
my father's for a week, and I had talked much with 
him and with the Indians, and had had my sym- 
pathies strongly enlisted for Oregon. In the mean- 
time, Rev. Mr. Peck had died. His wife had re- 
married, and I had given up all thought or expec- 
tation of ever going to that country. The call of 
Bishop Janes made a strong impression upon me ; 
and yet I could not decide the matter alone. Mrs. 
Pearne must be consulted. The bishop said, ''Go 
and see your wife, and come back as soon as you 
can." He also said, that if I should conclude to 
decline Oregon, he would- transfer me to Michigan. 
I went on Friday. I had to go by lake to Cayuga 
Bridge, forty miles ; thence by rail to Utica, ninety 
miles; and thence by stage to Madison, twenty 
miles. On Monday morning I was back at the 
seat of the Conference. Mrs. Pearne had readily 
given her approval of the measure, and I informed 
the bishop he might transfer me to Oregon. The 
presiding elders and the Conference had unani- 
mously approved of my transfer to that distant mis- 
sion field, the Conference also agreeing that if at 
any time I might wish to return, the Conference 
doors would swing open to receive me. 

The gold excitement as to California was still 



EN ROUTE TO OREGON. 



Ill 



at fever height. The bishop asked me if I thought 
I could resist the temptation to go to the CaUfornia 
gold-mines when I should arrive in California en 
route. I said I could. His transfer ran in the usual 
form. The letter he gave me with the transfer said 
in substance: ''Go to Oregon, live there and work 
there for Jesus, and die there for Jesus." It seemed 
from that letter that I was expected to separate 
myself, finally, from the associations of a hfetime 
on the Atlantic Coast, and begin lifelong associ- 
ations with a country I had never seen. But I had 
put my hand to the plow. I would not look back. 

In three weeks' time we were on the steamer 
Illinois, en route for Oregon via Panama, Acapulco 
in Mexico, and San Francisco. The steamer was 
much crowded with passengers for the new Occi- 
dental El Dorado. I think there were over a thou- 
sand passengers. Four ministers were on board; 
two for Oregon, and two for California. Three 
of the preachers were Methodists, and one was a 
United Presbyterian. After we went aboard ship, 
we found that three of our wives had been put into 
one stateroom, and their husbands into another, 
with an alcove between the rooms. As we sat in 
the alcove, before the steamer started, and had 
made each other's acquaintance, I remarked that 
while it was inconvenient for husbands and wives 
to be separated, yet the alcove connecting the 
rooms was convenient. We could have family 
prayers without interruption from other passengers. 
Later, the United Presbyterian minister demurred 
to my proposal about prayers. He said it was not 



112 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

practicable ; for we sang hymns, while in his Church 
he sang Psalms. But said I, ''That need not hinder 
our praying together and singing together, if you 
like ; for I can sing Psalms with you, and so can the 
others, and I doubt not they would be quite will- 
ing." "That is not it exactly," he repHed; "we 
do n't like to countenance hymn-singing by sing- 
ing Psalms with those who sing hymns." So we 
had no family prayers. As will be seen, he was very 
greatly liberalized by living in Oregon. Ten 3^ears 
later, he returned to the States. He wrote to me, 
from up the country where he lived, that he was 
coming to Portland, en route for the States, and he 
would like to be my guest over the Sabbath, and 
to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church at 
night; and the people of that Church could sing 
their own hymns and use their ow^n organ, and he 
would preach, and sing a Psalm alone at the end 
of the sermon. His name was Samuel G. Irvine. 
He was made moderator of the United Presby- 
terian General Assembly that year. 

We arrived in Aspinwall, at the mouth of the 
Chagres River, on Sunday morning. The ship 
anchored in the Chagres Bay, two or three miles 
from port. The purser had said we might stay on 
shipboard, if we did not want to disembark on Sun- 
day. So we staid. But in the afternoon the captain 
ordered all the passengers to leave the ship, as they 
were going down to Navy Bay, some ten miles 
away, to coal up. This put us to a great disadvan- 
tage, as all the boats from the shore had gone back 
to port. But we overcame this, by going in the 



CROSSING THE ISTHMUS. II3 

ship's lighter. Reaching port, we found that all 
the best boats had gone up the river, and we had to 
take, from what were left, such as we could get. We 
chartered a sampan ; i. e., a boat with a plank roof 
over it. This, as a protection from sun and rain, 
was desirable. It was the rainy season; and the 
flat-bottomed boat was very slow and unsuitable 
for the river, which was in flood. The river was 
too rapid for oars, and too deep for poling. We 
had to cordelle it by the bushes or rope. The 
bushes were loaded with a small, red ant, whose 
bite was like fire, and we could not escape it. 

We were a week crossing the isthmus ; five days 
to Gorgona, a distance of sixty-five miles ; and one 
day by mule, twenty-two miles, to Panama; and 
one day in Panama. Our company consisted of 
Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Irvine; Rev. Adam Bland, wife 
and child (Brother Bland and William Taylor were 
brothers-in-law) ; and Rev. Henry Ercanbrack, my- 
self, and Mrs. Pearne and child. It rained in tor- 
rents without premonition, and then instantly the 
sun would scorch us with its torrid heat — a very 
hazardous condition to encounter. Several of the 
steamer's passengers died from yellow fever on the 
passage up the river. We were in great peril at 
one time. Our sampan had become wedged 
under a lateral branch of a tree on the shore, the 
river was rising every moment, and we were in dan- 
ger of being sunk in the boiling, roaring flood. 
Some of the ladies, especially Mrs. Bland, became 
very nervous and highly excited. In another in- 
stance, Mrs. Bland became much alarmed. The 
8 



114 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

natives who were propelling the boat landed at a 
grassy bank, and, taking up their machetes, or long 
knives, they left us, and disappeared from sight. 
Mrs. Bland insisted they were going for re-enforce- 
ments, and then would return and kill us. In a 
few minutes they came back, each man having a 
stalk of sugar-cane, which they had brought to 
chew. So the suspicion of murder was dismissed. 
Reaching Gorgona, we spent the night there. I 
was very ill, with strong symptoms of yellow fever. 
I went to a druggist's, and bought thirty grains of 
sulphate of quinine, divided into two equal parts. 
One of them I took at nine o'clock and retired, tell- 
ing my wife to give me the other at midnight ; if I 
was delirious and refused to take it, to get help 
and put it down me. The coercion proved imnec- 
essary. My wife awakened me, and I took my 
medicine. The next morning I was as clear as a 
bell. But the night-shirt and the sheets were as 
yellow as saffron. On the route to Panamia, on 
muleback, each lady was accompanied by a mule- 
teer, who carried^a child. After traveling on mule- 
back some three miles, Mrs. Bland gave her babe 
some food. She had the muleteer to tighten the 
cinch, to make the saddle firmer. Remounting and 
ascending a rise, her husband, who was following 
his wife, asked a swarthy Frenchman about the 
road. He gave a French shrug, and said, "Im- 
passable." He held a rifle. She concluded he was 
a brigand demanding a passport ; and as she knew 
her husband had none, she supposed the end of 
life had come for one or both of them. She 



AT SAN FRANCISCO. 



115 



whipped up her mule. The saddle-girth broke ; she 
came to the ground, and running after me she de- 
clared that the Frenchman was killing her husband. 
This, too, proved a groundless fear. 

At Panama we were divided; Ercanbrack and 
Bland going on the steamer Repitblic, and Brother 
Irvine and myself going on the California. We 
missed connection with the Oregon steamer at San 
Francisco, and were delayed a week in California, 
making our trip from New York to Oregon six 
and a half weeks. We touched at Acapulco in 
Mexico. Arriving at San Francisco, we found that 
the steamer Republic had knocked a hole in her hull. 
Our vessel was sent down to tow her into port. 
We reached San Francisco Sunday morning. At 
evening I preached in Powell Street Methodist 
Episcopal Church to five hundred men and two 
women. The brethren pressed me very hard to 
remain in California, and wait until they could 
communicate with New York, and receive authority 
from Bishop Janes for me to remain permanently 
in California, where they alleged we were more 
needed than in Oregon. We declined. 

I ought perhaps to mention that, by the re- 
quest of Rev. William Taylor, the California street 
preacher, and later Bishop of Africa, I preached 
on the Plaza to his street congregation, at two 
o'clock in the afternoon of the day of our arrival. 
He sung them up by singing the hymn, ''Hear the 
royal proclamation." The people gathered from 
all directions. There were probably from five hun- 
dred to eight hundred persons present. I preached 



Il6 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

from Matthew xx, 6, 7, 8, "Why stand ye here all 
the day idle?" I never preached to a more orderly 
or attentive congregation. At the close Mr. Taylor 
delivered a pungent, burning exhortation, show- 
ing that, of all places in the world, San Francisco 
was the worst place in which to remain idle, and 
that this was true of spiritual and secular idling. 
He cited many affecting instances in which persons 
had come to grief and died in awful agony, through 
having been idlers in God's market-place. 

The next Sabbath, at the same hour and place. 
Rev. S. D. Simonds, pastor of Powell Street 
Church, preached on "Evil Communications Cor- 
rupt Good Manners.'' He made some allusions to 
slavery and its demoralizing tendency. This cre- 
ated a great disturbance, which Mr. Simonds could 
not control. Mr. Taylor came forward, and said: 
"Gentlemen, I am a Virginian. Virginians and 
miners go in for fair play." He then said : "How 
many will let Mr. Simonds say what he chooses?" 
All hands went up, and the meeting proceeded. 

Our voyage to Oregon was made in the steamer 
Columbia, a small vessel of about one thousand 
tons burden. Captain W. L. Dall commander. We 
stopped for one day at Port Orford, in Southern 
Oregon, to land Captain Silas Casey, United States 
army, in command of a battalion of infantry, with 
the necessary quartermaster and commissary stores, 
for an Indian campaign against the Indians on 
Coquille River, in Southern Oregon, who had been 
depredating on the settlements, and killing some 
of the settlers. Already the Oregon volunteers 



ENTERING COLUMBIA RIVER. 



117 



had captured some Indians and an Indian chief. 
It was proposed to give these Indians reasons to 
have due respect for the United States and their 
resources, by showing them through our ocean 
steamer. Only two of them cared to go through 
the vessel ; one of them was the chief, who had been 
captured. The Indians were very wary. Their step 
was light and cautious. They displayed much curi- 
osity in all they saw, asking many questions. They 
called the vessel a iire-ship. They were taken into 
the engine-room. As they stood near the escape- 
valve the engineer opened the valve, which gave 
a sudden, explosive sound. That Indian chief 
jumped, I should suppose, not less than three or 
four feet from where he stood, and uttered an ex- 
plosive ugh! quite as startling as the percussive 
escape of the steam had been. The Indian cam- 
paign, conducted by Captain Silas Casey, brought 
the Indians to terms, and they kept the peace for 
several years. 

After a voyage of five days from the time of our 
embarkation, we reached the mouth of the Colum- 
bia River at dusk. All the way up from San Fran- 
cisco we sailed within sight of the shore, and in the 
daytime we were not over six or eight miles from 
the land. It was deemed unsafe to jcross the Co- 
lumbia River bar at night. We stood off from 
shore, some twenty or thirty miles away. At day- 
break we headed for the Columbia River mouth, 
which seemed twelve or fifteen miles distant. At 
sunrise we were nearing the bar. A fog hung 
along the land. It looked to us, in the clear, crisp, 



Il8 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

October morning, like a silver strip along the coast. 
Above this, in the distance, was the dense, dark 
green of the fir-timber on the mountain's side. 
Above this we saw the snow-covered peaks of 
Mount Hood, Mount Rainier or Tacoma (the In- 
dian name). Saint Helen's, and Mount Jefferson, 
which seemed like a setting for the mountain pic- 
ture on which we gazed. I had never before seen 
snowy mountains. The view was one of thrilling 
enchantment. It can never be forgotten. The ship 
stopped at Astoria for an hour. I went ashore. 
The first man I met was Mr. Leonard, a gentleman 
whom I had often seen in Owego, N. Y., my last 
charge before leaving for Oregon. He addressed 
me by name, and said he had often heard me preach. 
We were five hours ascending the river to Portland, 
a hundred miles distant. The last twelve miles we 
had been sailing in the Willamette River. In Port- 
land we met Rev. James H. Wilbur, pastor of our 
Church in Portland, and Rev. C. S. Kingsley, prin- 
cipal of the Portland Academy and Female Semi- 
nary. 

Mr. Wilbur advised that we should remain at 
Portland until William Roberts, superintendent of 
the Oregon and California Missions, could be in- 
formed of my arrival, and could appoint me to my 
work, which, Mr. Wilbur said, might be up the 
Willamette River or down the Columbia, or pos- 
sibly over to Puget Sound. My letter of instruc- 
tion from Bishop Janes directed me to report in 
person to Mr. Roberts in Salem, his residence. So 
I pursued my voyage up the Willamette River in a 



OREGON DISTRICT. 



119 



steamer. Thirteen miles from Portland is Oregon 
City, where we encountered a portage and a fall 
in the river of some eight or ten feet. Here was 
erected the first Protestant house of worship on the 
entire Pacific Coast from Cape Horn to the Straits 
of Fuca. The distance from Oregon City to Salem, 
fifty miles, was passed on an upper river steamer, 
.which in winter and spring was able to ascend the 
river one hundred miles above Salem, the capital 
of Oregon Territory. Mr. Roberts, by direction 
of Bishop Janes, appointed me presiding elder on 
the Oregon District, which included all the United 
States territory from the Missouri River to the Pa- 
cific, eighteen hundred miles east and west; and 
from the California line in north latitude 39th de- 
gree to the 49th degree of north latitude, six hrm- 
dred and fifty miles; including an area of 1,170,000 
square miles. The States now included in the Ore- 
gon District as existing forty-six years ago, are 
Oregon and Washington, Idaho, Montana, and 
North and South Dakota. 

Fortunately, only the western part of this im- 
mense area was sparsely settled ; and so the actual 
distance east from the ocean was about three hun- 
dred miles. There were from ten to twelve charges, 
and about six hundred members. The following 
itinerant ministers were employed in ministerial 
work : William Roberts, superintendent of the Ore- 
gon and California Mission Conference; Portland, 
James H. Wilbur. In 1847, William Roberts and 
James H. Wilbur came to Oregon. James H. Wil- 
bur had been connected with the Black River Con- 



I20 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

ference in Northern New York, and Mr. Roberts 
had been successively a member of the Philadelphia 
and the Newark (New Jersey) Conferences. C. S. 
Kingsley was doing a very excellent educational 
work. His school was wxll patronized. F. S. 
Hoyt, a -former member of the Newark Conference, 
w^as exceedingly popular and useful, both as an in- 
structor and a minister. He was secretary of the 
Conference, and he joined with me later in offering 
the Oregon circular resolution on Lay Delegation. 

A. F. Waller and J. L. Parrish lived in Salem. 
They both came to Oregon in the good ship Lau- 
sanne in 1839, reaching Oregon some time in 1840. 
L. T. Woodward, principal of Santiam Academy, 
came in 1850; as did also N. Doane, one of the 
earliest graduates of Concord Biblical Institute. 
David Leslie was an early missionary, now super- 
annuated. William Helm, of Kentucky, was a vet- 
eran. John Flinn, an accession to the ministers, 
in 1850, Dallas. D. E. Blain and John McKinney 
were filling Calapooya Circuit. C. O. Hosford, a 
native preacher. J. F. Devore, an accession in 
1850. Joseph O. Rayner, stationed in Clatsop and 
Astoria. J. S. Smith, Jacksonville. Later came 
P. G. Buchanan, wdio preached in Portland a time ; 

B. C. Lippincott and Benjamin Close labored in 
Puget Sound ; G. M. Berry on the Columbia River 
work; Isaac Dillon came in 1852 from Ohio. The 
workers who had preceded my coming were earnest 
and faithful men. Some of them had been in Ore- 
gon a dozen or more years. Others, whose com- 
ing was later than mine, approved themselves to 



MISSION CONFERENCE. 



121 



God and the Church by their devotion and zeal, 
Gustavus, J. M., and H. R. Hines, brothers, es- 
pecially. 

The population of Oregon, as given by the 
United States Census of 1850, was: Of whites, 
13,294; Indians, about 100,000; perhaps more. 
This population of whites was scattered over the 
western part of Oregon. The vast regions between 
the Cascade Mountains and the Missouri River 
were peopled only by wild beasts and savages. In 
Western Oregon the people were scattered at wide 
distances apart, on respectively mile sections and 
half-mile half-sections. There were perhaps six or 
eight hundred people in Portland, two-thirds as 
many in Oregon City, five hundred in Salem, a 
hundred and fifty in Astoria, and twice as many in 
Vancouver, on the Columbia. In Vancouver there 
was a United States military post, and perhaps two 
hundred settlers. Albany, Marysville, La Fayette, 
Dayton, Eugene City in Willamette Valley, Rose- 
berry in Umpqua Valley, and Jacksonville and 
Phoenix in Rogue River Valley, were small villages. 
The number of settlers was very small; so it was 
• in the city of Dalles, where we had also a United 
States military post. We had long horseback rides, 
with rivers to ford and swim, making the work hard 
and perilous. But we had kind, hospitable treat- 
ment, excellent meetings, and some success. 

In November, 1851, the Oregon Mission Con- 
ference was held in Portland, Oregon, by William 
Roberts, superintendent. He divided the work into 
two districts : Oregon District, William Roberts, 



122 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

presiding elder ; including Salem and all below it to 
the sea; including, also, Olympia, Steilacoom, Se- 
attle, Mound Prairie, Cowlitz. Mary's River 
District, Thomas H. Pearne, presiding elder. This 
included Lebanon, Calapooya, Albany, Marysville, 
Belknap's Settlement, Eugene City, Roseburg, 
Jacksonville, Phoenix. Before detailing more at 
length the progress of our work in Oregon, it may 
be well to give a few general statements, which will 
enable the reader to follow more intelligently and 
with more interest the narratives and incidents 
which may be recited later. 



1 



' CHAPTER IX. 

AS to the name Oregon, which Bryant men- 
L tions in his well-known lines in Thanatopsis — 
he speaks of persons 

" Losing themselves in the continuous woods, 
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound 
Save its own dashing," — 

there are two theories. One of these accounts for 
its origin thus: The plains of Oregon are covered 
with a wild herb, called origanum, or thyme; 
whence, by a corruption of the word origanum, 
came the word Oregon. This is much the more 
probable of the two. The other theory is, that the 
early Jesuit missionaries who visited Oregon found 
a tribe of Indians dwelling on the banks of the 
Lower Columbia, with large, pendent ears, whom, 
because of this physical peculiarity, they called 
Auricanes, or large-eared Indians, and that the 
word Oregon is a corruption of the word Auri- 
canes. But this account is shown to be improbable, 
by the fact that if those early Indians had this pe- 
culiarity, they would have transmitted it to their 
descendants; whereas, no such descendants are 
found. 

DESCRIPTION OF OREGON. 
Oregon, when I saw it in 1851, was a great 
country, having the boundaries of an empire. It 
rivaled in beauty many lands, and greatly excelled 

123 



124 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

some others. Oregon abounds in magnificent 
scenery. Its mountains are fringed with somber 
cedars and pines and firs, and their being crested • 
with snow-peaks heightens the scenic effects. The 
prairies are covered with countless sunflowers 
growing on stalks, perhaps eighteen inches in 
height, and abundance of daisies and violets carpet 
the whole country with beauty, and perfume the 
whole air with their fragrance. My first view of 
Oregon from the sea produced the most delightful 
impression. We were near enough to the mouth 
of the Columbia to trace all the outlines of the 
coasts ; the shore-line was covered by a fog looking 
Hke a silver ribbon. Above that were the Cascade 
Mountains, five thousand feet high, clothed to their 
tops with fadeless green, which, however, in the 
distance was slightly empurpled. Above the moun- 
tain-line rose Mount Hood to the right, eighteen 
thousand feet, and to the left Saint Helen's, four- 
teen thousand feet. As the sun purpled the sum- 
mits of these peaks, the combination of silver and 
emerald and purple and white was indescribably 
beautiful. 

The scenery on the Columbia River is simply 
magnificent. The shores are bold and bluff, piled 
up with columnar basalt, as clearly outlined as the 
Giant's Causeway and Fingal's Cave in Staff a, on 
the shores of Scotland. Grand reaches of water 
are seen; rocky islands, here and there, with co- 
lumnar rocks Hke a stone church-spire; dashing 
waterfalls adorn the steep river sides, — making up a 
very lovely and sublime panorama. The ever- 



DESCRIPTION OF OREGON. 1 25 

present snow mountains lend an indescribable 
charm to the near or distant view. Along the 
Willamette River the scenery is more subdued and 
quiet than on the Columbia. But the beauty of the 
Willamette Valley is unsurpassed by anything I 
have ever seen in any other country in the whole 
wide world. And yet, when in the thirties Senator 
Thomas H. Benton advocated and urged the ac- 
quisition of Oregon, it was decried as a land of 
barren wastes and fruitless sand-dunes, not worth 
the taking in. Relatively, Oregon will compare 
favorably for loveliness, fertility, and productive- 
ness with any other country. 

Oregon has three natural divisions — the West- 
ern, the Middle, and the Eastern divisions. The 
Western extends from the sea to the Cascade 
Mountains. It includes the coast-range of moun- 
tains, ranging from fifteen hundred feet in height 
to three or four thousand feet. Western Oregon 
again is divided into three parts — the W^illamette 
Valley, running north and south, say two hundred 
miles long and sixty miles wide. The Willamette 
River rises in the Cascade and Coast Mountains, 
two hundred miles south from the Columbia River, 
and runs north, flowing into the Columbia one hun- 
dred miles from the sea. It is navigable, except the 
small portage at Oregon City Falls, for one hun- 
dred and fifty miles, during eight months of the 
year. On the west side are Tualitin, La Creole, 
Yamhill, and Mary's and -Long Tom Rivers, 
which rise in the Coast Mountains, and enter into 
the Willamette River at distances of thirty miles 



126 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

apart. On the east side of the Willamette, Clacka- 
mas, Putin, Molalla, Santiam, Calapooya, and Mo- 
hawk Rivers flow from the Cascades to the Willa- 
mette, at greater or less distances from each other. 

The Umpqua Valley lies east and west. It is 
made by the Umpqua River, which, rising in the 
Cascade Mountains and flowing westerly, de- 
bouches into the sea, after cutting right through 
the Coast Mountains. This valley is one hundred 
miles long and fifty miles across. It is very pic- 
turesque and productive. The soil possesses great 
fertility. Rogue River Valley is a repetition of 
Umpqua, with perhaps wider valleys than the 
Umpqua. 

Washington State, north of the Columbia 
River, has no considerable east and west rivers 
traversing it. The Cowlitz River rises in Mound 
Prairie, and flows southward to the Columbia, de- 
bouching into the Columbia thirty or forty miles 
from the sea. North of Mound Prairie is a com- 
paratively level and heavily-timbered section, sepa- 
rating the waters of the Columbia from the waters 
of Puget Sound, Hood's Canal, and Admiralty 
Inlet. North of these is the Gulf of Georgia, with 
hundreds of islands, and receiving the waters of 
Fraser River. North and east of this Gulf of 
Georgia is our northern boundary-line of 49 de- 
grees north latitude, running westerly until it 
reaches the center of the Gulf of Georgia, thence 
south by the main ship channel through the Gulf 
of Georgia, around the south end of Vancouver's 
Island, through the Straits of Fuca to the sea. 



CLIMATE OF OREGON, 1 27 

These magnificent inland seas are surrounded by 
inexhaustible fir forests, suitable for masts, spars, 
and lumber, and navigable for the largest ships to 
all their shores, containing twenty-eight hundred 
miles of sea-line. 

Middle Oregon is a high table-land, stretching 
from the Cascade Mountains eastward two hundred 
and fifty miles to the Blue Mountains. The rivers 
which enter into the Columbia from the north in 
Middle Oregon are, Spokane River and Louis 
River; from the south, Des Chutes, Baker River, 
John Day's River, Umatilla, Powder, and Walla 
Walla Rivers. Eastern Oregon, as the territory 
was originally bounded, runs eastwardly from the 
Blue Mountains to the foot of the Rockies. 

Oregon has three distinct climates, which are 
determined by its mountain ranges. The climate 
of Western Oregon is mild and humid. Roses and 
strawberries are in bloom, and the grass is green 
all through the winter. The thermometer is sel- 
dom more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the sum- 
mer, nor lower than 20 degrees in the winter. Mid- 
dle Oregon is high table-land, unprotected from 
the northern cold. It is intensely cold in winter, 
and terrifically hot in summer. The climate of 
Eastern Oregon is like that of the Middle, only 
more so. 

The average summer weather of Western 
Oregon is 67 degrees, and the winter weather 
46 degrees. The isotherm of Portland in lati- 
tude 46.20 north is that of Charleston, S. C, in 
latitude 32.20 degrees, nine hundred miles south. 



128 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

The cause of this unusually mild climate of West- 
ern Oregon is twofold. The Gulf Stream of the 
Pacific runs close to the shore in Oregon, and the 
Cascade Mountams protect Western Oregon from 
the arctic blasts of winter. 

Oregon is an exceptionally fine country for 
camp-meetings. From May to November scarcely 
any rain falls. In fourteen years' residence in Ore- 
gon, I never heard thunder but once, and then 
that was very distant and light. One season I at- 
tended and conducted seven camp-meetings in as 
many weeks. In all that time I slept in a house 
but one night, and we had no rain at any of those 
camp-meetings. Beginning at a certain point in 
the Willamette Valley on the east side of the river, 
and descending the valley, I went with my wife to 
four camp-meetings, and then, crossing over to the 
west side of the valley, I ascended the river, and 
held three more. Mrs. Pearne and myself attended 
all these seven camp-meetings. We carried our 
tent and clothing, including bedding, in a two-horse 
open buggy, drawn by two horses. We carried our 
tent in the buggy, and the tent-pole we fastened 
to the front and rear axles, the pole extending 
behind the buggy. We pitched and occupied our 
own tent. The people furnished us our food, and 
we furnished the transportation of tent and bed- 
ding. The camp-meetings were usually seasons of 
great power and blessing. Probably two hundred 
persons professed conversion during the season in 
which I held these seven meetings described. The 
people attending and sustaining the camp-meet- 



CAMP-MEETINGS. 



129 



ings were very kind and hospitable. The climate 
was usually so dry and cool, that quarters of fresh 
beef hung up in the trees, and protected from the 
yellow-jackets by cheesecloth, would remain fresh 
and wholesome for two weeks at a time. 

Several pecuHar camp-meeting incidents are 
recorded. On one occasion, when I was preaching 
at a camp-meeting in Long Tom, in Lane County, 
on the Sabbath, a man went deranged. He or- 
dered me down from the pulpit, that he might 
preach. I expostulated with him. He became 
angry, and plucked off his shoes and pelted me. 
His aim was so good, and his force in hurling the 
shoes at me was so great, that I had to do some 
expert dodging to save my face from mutilation. 
Then he ran up into the stand to take me out. 
Strong men seized and bound him, and carried him 
out. There was no lunatic hospital in Oregon. A 
log pen was made for him, into which he was put. 
He was fed and cared for in that pen; but he died 
in a few months. 

Usually, at all our camp-meetings, people of 
all the different denominations would attend. They 
seemed to feel as free and as much at home as the 
Methodists did. One could not determine from 
general observation who were Methodists, and who 
were not. At a camp-meeting- I held in Rock 
Creek, Clackamas County, there were a large num- 
ber of persons other than Methodists present. 
They were urged by me to make themselves entirely 
at home, which they appeared to do. One morning 
I took a walk before breakfast. Half a mile from 
9 



130 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 



the meeting I found a man milking in his kraal, or 
cow-pen, whom I had not seen at the meeting. I 
entered into conversation with' him, about as fol- 
lows : '1 do n't think I have seen you at our camp- 
meeting up above here." "I presume not," said 
he; "I never go to such places; they are about the 
last places I would attend." ''Why not?" I in- 
quired. He replied, "I do n't believe in them." I 
said, "Perhaps you do not profess rehgion?" ''O 
yes, I do," said he. ''Of what Church are you a 
member?" I asked. "Of the Baptist Church," said 
he. "But," said I, "there are several Baptist fam- 
ilies camped up here at our meeting." "They are 
not my kind of Baptists," said he. "What kind of 
a Baptist Church is yours?" I inquired. He an- 
swered, "It is a Two-seed Baptist Church, or a Two 
Principle Baptist Church, as they are sometimes 
called." "Explain what you mean by Two-seed 
Baptists," said L This was his answer : "The Lord 
has a seed and the devil has a seed. The devil's 
seed are goats. The Lord's seed are sheep; and 
there is no mixing them 'are breeds. The devil has 
been trying to make goats out of the Lord's sheep 
for six thousand years, and he has never made a 
single goat out of a sheep. And at your camp- 
meetings and protracted-meetings ministers of the 
gospel have been trying to make sheep out of the 
devil's goats, and they never made a sheep out of a 
goat yet." I had never before met that variety of 
Baptists. I said to him : "I see plainly why you 
are called Two-seed Baptists; but I think there is 



A ''TWO-SEED'' BAPTIST, 



another name which would be quite as appropriate. 
I should call you Hard-shell Baptists. You do not 
hold Sunday-schools, I suppose?" ''No," said he. 
"You do not try to have sinners converted into 
saints, do you?" Again he replied in the negative. 
"Do you," said I, "send missionaries to convert the 
heathen?" To this the reply was negative. Again 
I asked him, "Do you have Sunday-schools to teach 
your children the Bible?" To this he replied, "No." 
Once more I asked him, "Do you never hold re- 
vival-meetings or protracted-meetings?" And as 
before, he answered in the negative. I said : "My 
friend, I do n't think you have given your Church 
the right name; you should call it the Hard-shell 
Baptist Church." 

I held a camp-meeting once in the forks of the 
Santiam. W e had been somewhat annoyed by the 
Campbellites, who denied conversion by faith and 
the Holy Ghost, and who taught baptismal regen- 
eration, or conversion by baptism. Weeks before 
the meeting I announced far and wide that I would 
preach on salvation by faith as being the Bible 
teaching on that subject, rather than salvation by 
water baptism or immersion, as held by the Camp- 
bellites. My sermon lasted three hours and a half. 
Beginning at eleven o'clock A. M., I finished my 
discourse at 2.30 o'clock. Strange as it may seem, 
I held the audience for all that time without a break. 
We heard less about salvation by water after that 
sermon than we had been accustomed to hear 
before. 



132 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

At each of these seven camp-meetings there 
were conversions. The number of professed con- 
versions in all of them was something over one 
hundred and fifty. 

I was once invited to go to Sublimity and hold 
a service, and baptize the child of the plucky little 
German class-leader. He also desired that I would 
preach on the subject of infant baptism; for all his 
neighbors were Campbellites, who pooh-poohed 
and ridiculed infant baptism, and he wanted to have 
a logical justification for his cause. I made an ap- 
pointment for that purpose. It was announced 
that I would preach on Infant Baptism, and baptize 
a child. A large crowd gathered. I preached faith- 
fully and strongly on the subject. Two Campbellite 
women found it too strong for them. One of them 
said to her sister present, ''Did you ever hear tell 
of the like of that?" "No," was the reply. "And 
that is not all," said sister Number 2 ; "I won't hear 
any more of that kind of talk." They then both 
left the church. The house being an unchinked log 
building, they stood outside and kept up a chatter- 
ing, which somewhat disturbed the people present. 
I baptized the child, and then I inquired if any one 
present desired to make any announcement; for 
we were accustomed in that country to make an- 
nouncements at all religious meetings, and an- 
nounce religious meetings of all denominations at 
one another's meetings. A Campbellite preacher, 
who had been accustomed to preach in that school- 
house, arose, and said, "Four weeks from to-day 
I shall preach the gospel here, I shall." Said I, 



A CAMPBELLITE PREACHER. 



"Brother, you do n't mean to say that you have not 
had the gospel preached here to-day?" "I say 
nothing about that," said he; "but I do say that 
four weeks from to-day I will preach the gospel 
here, so I will." The class-leader seemed to think 
it was his turn, and he observed, "If you do, it will 
be the first time." 



CHAPTER X. 



MY district required twelve weeks of travel four 
times a year. I lived in Salem. I had six 
appointments north of Salem, and as many south. 
I had one rest-week each quarter, making twenty- 
two hundred and fifty miles of travel in a year. I 
traveled on muleback or horseback on the southern 
half of my district ; by steamer, canoe, and horse on 
the northern half. The work was sufficiently la- 
borious, and quite full enough of exposure, hard- 
ships, and peril. 

The engraving on the opposite page represents 
my faithful servant and bearer, who carried me on 
my long and toilsome journeys for tens of thou- 
sands of miles. Her name was Cynthian. My 
friend, Hamilton Campbell, one of the early lay 
missionaries, had lost one of his noble span of 
matched mules. He kindly sold me the surviving 
animal. I paid him one hundred and sixty dollars. 
Cynthian was sixteen hands high; young, spirited, 
yet dependable, docile, fleet, easy-gaited. In the 
long summer days, lasting from four o'clock A. M. 
until eight o'clock P. M., I often rode her from 
seventy to eighty miles in a day. In all my travel 
on her, on the Oregon District, as presiding elder, 
I have ridden many thousands of miles. My full 
equipment for these long rides, in which I never 
carried an umbrella, and never was wet by the rain, 
may be thus described : The broad-brimmed hat 

134 



I 



TRAVELING OUTFIT. 



was covered with oiled silk, and so was waterproof. 
The next piece of top-gear is the poncho, or Mex- 
ican scrape, a waterproof shawl, with a slit in the 
middle, through which the rider's head was 
put; and this covered his whole body, and fully 
protected it from wind and weather. The indis- 
pensable portmanteau, or saddlebags, is covered 
from view by the poncho. The pommel of the sad- 
dle rises high in front, and the kentil, or rear part of 
the saddle, is also high ; so making a well-fitting seat 
for the rider. From the pommel is suspended the 
invariable lariat, a rawhide rope of perhaps forty 
feet, and by which the mule or horse is staked out 
for his feed of grass. The large wooden stirrup 
makes an easy rest for the foot, and the tapidary, 
or front cover of the stirrup, keeps the foot from 
going too far through the stirrup, and protects the 
foot from the rain. The mule and I were close 
friends. She would always whicker for me when 
I approached her; and when I lay out upon the 
plains, with blankets beneath and over me, and the 
saddlebags for my head, after she had filled herself 
with the grass meal, she would come and lie down 
beside me, and bear me company through the night. 
When I attended the General Conference I parted 
with her reluctantly; but I sold her, for fear she 
would be stolen in my absence. I received four 
hundred dollars in gold for her. 

In December, 1852, I had to escort a mission- 
ary with his wife and child, and a lay brother and 
his wife and child, and a sea captain, from Port- 
land to Olympia. We took steamer at Portland 



136 SIXTV-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

in the morning, and went to the mouth of the Cow- 
litz River. Before starting, I went into the bakery 
at Portland, and laid in two or three loaves and 
some crackers and cheese. We also carried our 
blankets and wraps. It was snowing heavily all the 
way down the river, and at Cowlitz it had reached 
a depth of six or eight inches. We chartered a 
whale-boat and a crew of four Indians, and started 
up the rapid river, propelling our boat with oars 
and poles. By dusk we reached a deserted bach- 
elor's cabin on the river bank. We learned by the 
Indians of a potato-patch near the dwelling. We 
sent the Indians to dig potatoes, which, with sharp 
sticks, they gathered. W^e washed them in the 
river, and roasted them in the ashes. These, with 
the stores I procured, made the supper and break- 
fast for ten adults and two infants. • 

At noon we reached Gardner's, or "Hard-bread," 
as he was called, because his biscuits were so hard. 
I carried home one of his biscuits, which were blue 
in color because of the blue pod in the wheat, which 
the screen of the miller did not take out. The bis- 
cuits were sodden and heavy and hard. One of 
them shot from a cannon would kill a man as dead 
as any leaden or iron ball. 

The snow was deep, and deepening. The 
weather was cold. The hotel was cheerless. It 
w^ould not do for the ladies and babies to stay at the 
hotel, for it was too open and cold. They could 
not go through from Gardner's to Olympia, fifty 
miles, because the horses were all at the other end 
of the line. I learned that Mr. Jackson, a farmer 



LOST ON THE PRAIRIE. 



settler on the road eight miles towards Olympia, 
had a comfortable house, and entertained travelers. 
Three and a half miles away was a factory of the 
Hudson Bay Company. The chief factor of the 
company, Dr. McLaughlin, at Oregon City, had 
often told me, if I was ever in want of anything 
which the company could supply, to call on them 
for it, and I should have it. I learned, on inquiry, 
that they kept some fifty or sixty horses and sad- 
dles as well, and I walked out to the factory in com- 
pany with Captain Harland. The snow was knee- 
deep and getting deeper, and the mercury was fall- 
ing. I concluded I would get horses and saddles 
for the men and their families, and send them to 
Jackson's, where they could remain until the con- 
ditions were more favorable. This was my errand 
to the Hudson Bay Company's farm. We had gone 
within half a mile of the place, and were kept in 
the right direction by a lane or road, which termi- 
nated half a mile short of our objective point; and 
that half mile was prairie, with untrodden snow 
eighteen inches deep. It was almost dark. The 
house at the end of the lane was the home of a 
Catholic priest. I called in to inquire my way. He 
said it was half a mile in the same direction as the 
lane. I told him as soon as it became dark we 
would be unable to see our way, and we were in 
danger of being lost. I asked him to permit us to 
stay with him until morning. He declined. We 
started for the farms; night came down upon us, 
and we were lost. We wandered in that prairie 
for two hours. Fortunately, some Indians were 



138 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

passing, whom we hailed. They were going to the 
farms. We followed their tracks, and reached our 
destination. We knocked for admittance. The 
agent of the company refused to keep us, and re- 
fused to furnish the horses. I told him we would 
not leave there, for we had already been lost two 
hours between the priest's house and the farms. 
Then he admitted us, and seated us in a cold room. 
After insisting on the horses for the travelers, we 
w^ere promised them on payment of sixteen dollars, 
and two dollars extra for the horses we would ride 
back to the hotel with. We went to bed supper- 
less; i. c, we lay down on the floor in a cold 
room and covered ourselves with blankets, and 
slept till morning, when we left. I sent my guests to 
Jackson's, where they were comfortable, and in a 
few days they pursued their way to Olympia. I 
hastened back home, for the indications were that 
the rivers would close up. 

From Oregon City I went by steamer to Cham- 
poeg, the boat breaking the ice. At Butteville the 
boat could go no farther. With my saddlebags 
and blankets on my shoulders, I walked through 
the snow, breaking the roads, twenty-six miles, 
reaching home at ten o'clock P. M., December 25, 
1852, as tired as a man could be. I had eaten noth- 
ing since early morning. My weariness and hunger 
had been very severe. 

About a month after reaching Oregon, I had 
occasion, on one Saturday, to travel thirty-five 
miles across the country, to hold a meeting at Dim- 
mock's, on the French prairie. I went to the \A' ilia- 



GETTING THE DIRECTION. 



mette River, expecting to find a ferry-boat at 
Champoeg, ten miles beyond which was Dim- 
mock's. But the boat had been washed down the 
river in a freshet. I had to go back from the ferry 
and up the river six miles, to find De Gere's ferry. 
Attempting this, I was lost in a fog.* I met a cow- 
boy driving his cows to pasture. He piloted me to 
the house of a German, named Fulquarts. I in- 
quired of him my way to the ferry. He directed 
me thus : "Veil, den, you see mine farm down dere 
in de pottom" (an inclosure of an acre or two for 
a truck-patch). ''You vill take dat farm up on your 
right hand, und dat vill bring you to von ferry bad 
slough; dere you had petter get down and lead 
your horse, or you vill mire down mit him ; den you 
vill take anoder farm up on your right hand, and 
turn anoder corner down on your left hand, and dat 
vill pring you to de ferry." The ferryman was a 
half-breed Indian. I had to inquire my way to 
Dimmock's. I asked the Indian if he could speak 
English. I could not make him understand me. I 
said, ''What is your name?" He said, "Icta," which 
means "what?" I said, "Is your name Icta?" He 
said, "Wake," which means "No." Then I said, 
"Your name is Icta Wake?" He laughed at my 
verdancy. I could learn nothing from him. So 
I pushed on, traveling three or four miles, fording 
places of deep water. At last I came to a white- 
washed house, surrounded by a peach-orchard. I 
hailed. An Indian woman came to the door. T 
said, "Who lives here?" She answered, "Lucy." 
Supposing she had given me her Christian name, 



140 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

I inquired, ''Is your husband's name 'Lucy?' " 
"Nawitka," said "she. "Then your name is Lucy 
Nawitka?" She understood me, and she could 
speak English. She laughed at my blunder, and 
said, "My husband's name is Lucea.", Nawitka is 
the Indian word for Yes, or Certainly. I asked her 
the way to some American's house. She said if I 
kept on I would reach Champoeg in a mile and a 
half; and then I would find Dr. Newell, an Amer- 
ican. Here I staid all night; but I had eaten noth- 
ing since morning, and I went to bed supperless. 
The next day the Doctor piloted me to Dimmock's, 
which I reached at church-time. 

I once attended a quarterly-meeting when the 
floods were out ; for we sometimes had very serious 
floods there. I was water-bound at Marysville, 
forty miles from home. Here I boarded a steamer, 
tied my mule in the bow of the steamer, and rode 
to Salem. Then I struck out for the hills to head 
the streams, where I could ford them, on my way to 
Oregon City, forty miles away. Bear Creek was 
out of its banks ; for twenty or thirty rods each side 
of the bridge there was water to wade or swim 
through to and from the bridge. The bridge was 
the only visible object before me. I took my sad- 
dlebags on my shoulders and slung my blankets on 
my back, and got on my knees on the mule's saddle. 
The bridge was a pole bridge; i. e., fir poles from 
four to six inches thick were resting on three string 
pieces. The water was just up to the cross-poles. 
I stepped off my mule on to the bridge, and, un- 
fastening my lariat, said to the mule, "Now, Cyn- 



CROSSING A SWOLLEN CREEK. 141 

thian, you must be very careful, or you will get 
into the creek, and you will have to swim out." 
She seemed to understand me, and she did go care- 
fully. Her weight and mine sprung the stringer 
pieces, and the cross-poles drifted off from under 
her. She sank down astride the middle stringer. I 
pushed my foot against her neck, and she fell off 
her perch into the creek. I gave her rope, holding 
on to the end of it, and brought her round to me, 
remounted her, and rode out, and went on my way 
to my destination. 



CHAPTER XI. 

I HAVE spoken of sloughs or swales. These were 
numerous, and sometimes dangerous to cross. 
I came to one, which looked so formidable that I 
rode back some distance to inquire of a settler how 
to cross the slough safely. He said: "It is pretty 
bad. But you go to the worst-looking part, and 
you will see the ears of dead mules sticking up. 
You follow that sign, and ride over on the backs 
of the dead mules, and you can cross that way." 
Of course he was joking. Another man came to 
a bad-looking slough. A boy on the hither side 
was cutting wood. A dialogue ensued. ''Boy, is 
that a safe slough to cross?" ''O yes." "Has it a 
good, hard bottom?" "O yes," said the boy. The 
man essayed to Gross. His horse mired. He had 
to dismount and wade out. He was very angry, 
for he thought the boy had deceived him. He 
cursed the boy roundly. "Why did you lie to me? 
Did n't you say the slough has a good, hard bot- 
tom?" "O yes," said the boy, and then applying his 
thumb to his nose, with the other digits erected, he 
said, "O yes, the bottom is good and hard, but you 
did not get down to it." 

I have mentioned the German's specific direc- 
tions to me how to find the ferry. They were suffi- 
ciently plain. I often found Americans who would 
direct me thus : "Well, stranger, you will follow this 
trail you are on a right smart, till you come to 

142 



SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 



where it forks; you will take the right-hand eend, 
and follow that a right smart, till you come to the 
second fork; you will take the left-hand eend, and 
follow that till you come to a cabin, and there you 
will do wxll to inquire." Often the cabin would be 
a bachelor's home, and the occupant absent miles 
away, and no other cabin in sight. I always carried 
a pocket compass, but for which we should have 
had serious trouble in finding our way. 

WEDDINGS AND FUNERALS. 

Sometimes the character of people can be 
learned by knowing their customs at funerals and 
weddings. It will be found amusing, if not in- 
structive, to consider the following Oregon exam- 
ples, and a few, also, furnished from other periods 
and places. In Oregon and in the South, from 
which many of the earlier immigrants had come to 
Oregon, it was customary for funeral sermons to be 
preached, months, and even years, after the deaths 
and burials of the deceased had occurred. In more 
than a few instances I have conducted funerals 
when the second wife or the second husband, as the 
case may have been, sat with the mourners at the 
funeral of the first wife or husband, respectively. 
And, really, it sometimes seemed to me that the 
second wife or husband was the most real and seri- 
ous mourner of the whole group. This may have 
been imagination on my part; but I am candidly 
giving my actual impressions at the time. 

The Donation Land Law of Oregon, enacted 
August 14, 1848, in the Act of Congress organ- 



144 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

izing the Territory of Oregon, provided for the gift 
of three hundred and twenty acres to each adult 
settler in Oregon then being single and living in 
Oregon at the time of the passage of the law, or at 
any time after the passage of the law up to Decem- 
ber I, 1 85 1. If married, the law gave to each of 
the parties, husband and wife, a half section of land, 
making the donation to both a full section of a mile 
square. As the time-limit of the land law ap- 
proached, the matrimonial business was very act- 
ive ; and it was not too scrupulous as to the fitness, 
in age or otherwise, of the parties marrying. It was 
not unusual for old bachelors and widowers of forty 
or more years to be married to girls entirety too 
young to contract and enter into marriage relations. 
Reaching Oregon in October, 1851, this feature 
of the subject was strongly impressed upon my 
attention. Soon after my arrival in Oregon, I 
formed the acquaintance of an interesting girl of 
apparently eight or nine years, whom I caressed 
and petted as a child. A few weeks later, I saw her 
in another part of the country from where I first 
met her. I renewed my attentions to her as a child. 
I inquired, ''Have you left home to attend school?" 
'%a, no !" was her reply ; "I 'm married !" Amazed, 
I let her down from my knee, saying: "I thought 
you were a child. How old are you?" The answer 
came, "I am ten, going on eleven." Before that 
child was eighteen she had been several times mar- 
ried and divorced. 

In Washington Territory, near the mouth of 
the Cowlitz, I married a couple, at a quarterly- 



A FASHIONABLE WEDDING. 



meeting held on that occasion, in a Roman Cath- 
olic church-building. When I asked the man the 
usual question : "Wilt thou have this woman to be 
thy lawful wedded wife, to live together after God's 
ordinance in the holy estate of marriage so long as 
ye both shall live?" quick and strong and percus- 
sively he replied, "You bet yer!" The explosion 
and force were terrific. The audience were con- 
vulsed at the eager and novel way of his answer- 
ing. I looked serious, and said, "Did you mean 
yes by your answer?" He responded affirmatively. 
The wedding proceeded to its conclusion. 

In the fifties I attended a large "swell" wed- 
ding. With the parties standing before me, I called 
for objections, if any could be alleged, why the 
parties named should not be united in holy mar- 
riage. A brother present replied, "I object !" 
"What," I inquired, "is your objection?" He an- 
swered, "I am older than she, and I have a right to 
be married first." I said to the bride-elect, "Will 
you wait a moment until I shall have married your 
brother?" She assented. I said to her brother, 
"Bring forward your bride-elect, and I will marry 
you first." (There was no Hcense required then.) 
He said, "No one will have me." Several young 
ladies stepped out in a row, and said to him, "Take 
your choice." He looked at them for a moment, 
and then said to me, "I withdraw the objection." 
I said : "You have practically made an offer of your- 
self in marriage, and have been accepted. Unless 
you can render a reason for declining to carry out 
your offer satisfactory to every one of these young 
10 



146 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

ladies, I can not release yon." The reason he as- 
signed, and which the ladies accepted as satisfac- 
tory, was this: fear if I should marry one of 
them, the others might die of broken hearts." The 
objection of the brother being withdrawn, his sis- 
ter's marriage ceremony proceeded to its close. 
My fee, on this occasion, was a fifty-dollar gold 
coin. It was octagonal in form, and weighed the 
same amount in Troy ounces as two and one-half 
double eagles. It was called a slug. 

I attended a wedding in Hillsboro, Ohio, for 
which I received, constructively, an immense fee. 
The groom expectant engaged me to wait at my 
home for him from twelve noon to one P. AI. 
This I did. At one he came, and requested another 
hour's extension; It was granted. At two, he re- 
quested a third hour's extension, which, also, was 
admitted. Before three he was present with his 
bride-elect. After marrying him, he requested that 
we should furnish him some music. We sang for 
him, the organ leading, "Vain delusive world, 
adieu," and another piece. He seemed to enjoy 
it. On leaving, he asked what my charges would 
be. I replied : "I never make a charge. I leave that 
to the parties." As he passed out, he said, '']\Iin- 
ister, I am ten thousand times ohlcegcd to you." In 
New York, in my boyhood, I had learned that every 
"thank you" I received was worth eighteen and 
three-fourths cents. I multiplied the value of a 
"thank you" by ten thousand. By that rule, applied 
according to arithmetic, he had paid me in "thank 
you's" eighteen hundred and seventy-five dollars. 



COLORED WEDDING. 



147 



Before going to Oregon, I married a couple in 
New York State. In doing this, I seriously ques- 
tioned whether I might not have rendered myself 
liable for cruelty to animals. At my instance, as 
the bride was unusually long in dressing her hair, 
the man to be married said to his espoused, ''Sally, 
the minister would like you to make more haste." 
With a savage fierceness, she turned to him, and 
said, "Joe! you shut up, or I will slap you." When 
it is considered that she was an Amazon, and he a 
wizened, dwarfish man, the situation can be im- 
agined. Having no personal fear of her power, I 
said to her, "If you wish me to marry you to this 
man, you must be ready within two minutes." This 
was effectual. She put up her long, luxuriant, 
golden hair, and was married. As the groom ac- 
companied me to the gate, and handed me a dollar 
for my fee, he remarked : "She does n't hand- 
some much; but the way she has got to hoe my 
potatoes and corn is a caution." I was relieved. 
The match was more nearly even, with his grit over 
against her size and her spirit, than I had feared. 

In Binghamton, N. Y., I married my first col- 
ored couple. This was an "upper-ten" afifair, as a 
colored wedding. Those present were all mulattoes. 
After marrying them and wishing them joy, I said 
to the groom, "Now you may salute your wife." 
He stepped aside, with a most polite bow, saying, 
"After you, minister." Of course, I politely de- 
clined to avail myself of his offer. 



CHAPTER XII. 



I HAVE referred to the jargon. It was a dialect 
common to settlers and Indians and half-breeds. 
It was easily learned, and very convenient in travel- 
ing in Oregon at an early day. A stranger in Ore- 
gon could make his way through the country with 
great difficulty, unless he understood the Chinook 
vocabulary. Indians and half-breeds abounded in 
Oregon. The Indian words on the Pacific are far 
more soft and liquid than the Indian words on the 
Atlantic; and they are also equally significant. 
Onondaga. ; Niagara, as pronounced in the days of 
the Revolutionary fathers; Cattaragus — Seneca 
words — are harsh and guttural, as contrasted with 
the Oregon Indian words; as Umatilla, Multno- 
mah, or the broad, open valley ; Willamette, or the 
long and crooked river; Yaquinna, Yakimah, Co- 
quille, Molalla, Yamhill, Spokane, Walla Walla; 
Wailetpu, pronounced Wsi-'i-let-pn, 

Our life in Oregon contained now and chen an 
amusing incident or a perilous adventure. I was 
holding a camp-meeting on the Callapooya River, 
forty-five miles from home. A messenger reached 
the camp-groimd on Saturday evening, informing 
me of the dangerous illness of my wife. On my 
long ride of forty-five miles I had a rapid, deep, and 
dangerous stream to cross. I started at nine 
o'clock P. M. For twenty-four miles my way led 

me over a pathless, unpeopled prairie. I took a 

148 



TRAVELING IN OREGON. 



149 



course, steering for a butte beyond the prairie. 
After I had traveled about six miles a pack of 
wolves followed me, making night hideous with 
their bowlings, and making din and noise enough 
for twoscore of wolves. They sometimes came so 
near that I could hear their breathing. My horse 
was greatly excited, snorting and sometimes shriek- 
ing with terror. Reaching the Santiam River, I 
tried, by loud and prolonged calls, to arouse the 
ferryman, who lived on the opposite side of the 
river; but it was all in vain. I plunged into the 
river, and my horse swam over in good form. I 
reached my home about half-past three in the morn- 
ing, having made the distance in six and a half 
hours, making my rate an average speed of seven 
miles an hour. My wife was very ill, and continued 
so for weeks, during which time I had to stay at 
home and nurse her. 

In a trip from Portland to Yreka, California, in 
an open buggy, over three hundred miles, with 
Bishop Simpson, as we were rounding a rocky 
point in Rogue River Valley, where the river makes 
a short turn, my horses suddenly jumped forward 
and sideways, greatly risking our going down a 
precipice into the river. The cause of this was a 
sudden, loud rattling by a rattlesnake. The warn- 
ing noise startled the horses and us as well, for it 
was very sudden and very fearful. After driving 
past the point I procured a hazel rod, and, return- 
ing, dispatched the snake and cut off his rattle, 
which I presented to the bishop as a trophy. There 
were thirteen rattles and a button, showing the 



I50 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

snake to be about fifteen years old. He was four 
feet long, and about two and a half inches in 
diameter. 

In March, 1853, Bishop Edward R. Ames, the 
first bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church who 
came to Oregon, and held our first Conference as 
a full and regularly-organized Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, visited tis. He re- 
arranged the work, making three districts: Willa- 
mette River District, Thomas H. Pearne, presiding 
elder — residence, Salem; Unipqua District, James 
H. Wilbur, presiding elder ; and Puget Sound Dis- 
trict, John F. Devore, presiding elder. The bishop 
also appointed me an agent of the Missionary Soci- 
ety of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to make 
a settlement of the accounts of the late superin- 
tendent, Rev. William Roberts, and to close up the 
secular business of the mission. We thus ceased 
to be a mission. We became an integral part of 
the system and connection of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. After fourteen years of tutelage, we 
were graduated to a full-fledged and fully-equipped 
synod of Methodism. It was meet, therefore, that 
the property interests of the Missionary Society 
should be closed up. These consisted of certain 
educational plants, which had been nurtured by the 
Missionary Society, and notably Clackamas Female 
Seminary in Oregon City, which was sold, and the 
avails, in part, turned over to the assets of the 
Willamette University, of which Rev. F. S. Hoyt, 
a graduate of the Wesleyan University, Middle- 
town, Conn. — a son of one of the veterans of the 



FRANCIS S. HOYT. 



New Hampshire Conference, Rev. Benjamin 
R. Hoyt — was the president. 

Brother Hoyt was an able administrator of the 
school under his care. He was a strong preacher 
and a wise manager of those things within his pre- 
scribed sphere. He was for several years — ten, 
probably — the efficient secretary of the Oregon 
Annual Conference. The university grew in means, 
standing, and usefulness during his incumbency. 
In i860 he was elected a delegate to the General 
Conference, which met that year in Buffalo, N. Y. 
Rev. Alvin F. Waller was his associate delegate. 
Dr. Hoyt received from the Ohio Wesleyan Uni- 
versity the well-deserved honor of a degree as 
Doctor in Divinity, which he has ever since worn 
with marked credit and distinction. His work as 
a member of the Oregon Conference terminated 
in i860. He became a professor in the Ohio Wes- 
leyan University, and a member of the North Ohio 
Annual Conference. Later, he was elected ed- 
itor of the Western Christian Advocate, an office 
which he filled with marked ability for twelve years, 
when he returned, in 1880, to the active, effective 
ranks of the itinerancy, being presiding elder of 
the West Cleveland District for six years, and 
then for six years more on the Sandusky District. 
From these twelve years of active and laborious 
itinerant life he returned to the educational work 
of the Church, by a professorship in the Baldwin 
University, in the line of pastoral theology. Dr. 
Hoyt, while conservative in his mind and methods, 
was also safely and thoroughly progressive and up- 



152 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

to-date. In the Oregon Conference he signed with 
me a circular resolution in favor of lay delega- 
tion, which was known as the Oregon Resolution, 
and which received a large vote. He conducted the 
Western Christian Advocate with ability and success. 
Our relations for forty-five years have always been 
cordial and unbroken. He has never failed to com- 
mand my respect, confidence, and appreciation. 

The episcopal visit of Bishop Ames in Oregon 
was highly appreciated and enjoyed by the min- 
isters and people of Oregon. His sermons at Salem 
and Portland were popular and effective. He 
showed himself a wise counselor. He was clearly 
a man of affairs, and of large business ability. In 
Salem he preached a Conference sermon on Faith, 
from the words, ''These are written, that ye might 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and 
that believing ye might have life through his name." 
(John XX, 31.) The sermon produced a profound 
and permanent impression. He preached a char- 
acteristic sermon in Portland, from the words, 
"With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured 
unto you again." When Bishop Ames returned 
East, I accompanied him on the steamer down the 
Columbia River as far as to Astoria. Father 
Broulier, the head of the Jesuit order in Oregon, 
was a passenger. For some two hotu's, in the rear 
part of the dining saloon, I discussed with him the 
work of the Roman Catholics in Oregon as com- 
pared with that of the Protestants. The bishop 
overheard most of the conversation, although he 
did not mingle in it. He said I held the Jesuit 



OREGON PREACHERS, 



father to a close and plain showing of the respective 
merits and claims of the two competing systems 
respectively represented by the Jesuit and myself. 

The organization of the Annual Conference 
came none too soon. A large overland emigration 
from the Western States poured into Oregon. 
These added several thousands to its population. 
They were found by the Methodist ministers sta- 
tioned in all parts of the Territory. Enlargement 
and increase came to our Church. Churches were 
built, and revivals occurred. Sunday-schools were 
organized in many places. A lieutenant in the 
United States army, Mr. Roberts — a Baptist in his 
Church affinities — stationed in Oregon, personally 
gave five dollars to every Sunday-school so organ- 
ized in Oregon. Some twenty or thirty Methodist 
Sunday-schools were thus assisted by his bounty 
in Sunday-school requisites and library books. 
Among the additions to our Church, by the immi- 
grations of that and the following years, we num- 
bered the three Hines brothers heretofore named — 
Gustavus, Joseph W., and Harvey K. were given to 
us. They all came from the Genesee Conference. 
Gustavus, the elder, had been one of the early mis- 
sionaries. He and his wife had adopted the only 
daughter of Jason Lee, the pioneer projector and 
leader of the Oregon missions. She came with 
them to Oregon, and married in Salem. These 
brothers were men of marked zeal and ability. 
Joseph W. removed to California, and died there. 
Gustavus remained in Oregon, doing heroic work 
for Christ, and died full of years and honor. Har- 



154 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

vey K. still remains a patriarch among his brethren. 

A large proportion of the immigration landed 
from the plains in Southern Oregon. There were 
two brothers, named Royal, with their families, 
from Illinois. One of them, Rev. William Royal, 
was a member of one of the lUinois Conferences. 
He and one of his sons became members of the 
Oregon Conference. Rev. James B. Royal, and a 
nephew of his, T. B. Royal, also became members 
of that Conference. The latter ran a career of great 
honor and usefulness, and a few years since 
preached his semicentennial sermon. His son, 
Rev. Stanley O. Royal, after a full course in Drew 
Theological Seminary, joined the Cincinnati Con- 
ference in 1877. He has been secretary of the Con- 
ference eleven years, and has filled important 
charges. His wife is a daughter of Bishop Walden. 
Crossing the Plains in 1852, they were in a large 
body of emigrants. When the emigrant train 
reached that part of the Plains where the Indians 
were becoming troublesome, and where the emi- 
grants found the feed and water scarce, a majority 
of the party resolved to travel on Sunday for their 
greater security and v/elfare. A minority, headed 
by the Royals, resolved to rest on Sabbaths. They 
separated. The majority encountered sickness and 
drought and Indian marauders, and reached Ore- 
gon in a disastrous condition, and very late in the 
season, sans cattle, sans horses, sans wagons, and 
came into Oregon on foot, and stripped and sore. 
The division led by the Royals reached Oregon 
earlier than the majority party, and in better con- 



MINISTERIAL WORK. 



dition. Their stock and wagons escaped the loss 
and wreck which came to the majority party. It 
was a marked instance of a Divine vindication of 
observing the Lord's-day. 

The work prospered and prevailed in the year 
following Bishop Ames's presidency in 1852. In 
Southern Oregon Mr. Wilbur had built and opened 
a seminary, called the Umpqua Academy. He had 
organized and set going in orderly form the work 
in the Umpqua and Rogue River Valleys. The 
deserts and moral wastes of Southern Oregon were 
wearing the bloom and the beauty of the Lord's 
vineyard. The people were glad for the coming 
of the messengers of gospel peace. The gathering 
of the ministers to the next Annual Conference 
was with rejoicing, and the bringing in of the 
sheaves garnered in the Lord's house. Brother 
Wilbur was a very hearty and earnest worker. His 
spirit was contagious. His associates in the min- 
istry caught the holy flame. They shouted the har- 
vest home over precious souls gathered into the 
fold of Christ. 

In Puget Sound, Mr. Devore had wrought 
prodigies of valor. New charges had been formed, 
manned, and worked. In Seattle, Steilacoom, and 
Olympia the cause had had uplift and enlargement. 
The North and the South brought their joyful tid- 
ings to gladden the center, which, too, had acquired 
the swing of victory. Portland had received many 
accessions. The Portland Academy and Female 
Seminary was largely attended. Oregon City was 
growing under the able ministry of P. G. Buchanan, 



156 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

and Yamhill was well served by Nehemiah Doane. 
Astoria and Clatsop were in line. Vancouver Cir- 
cuit was becoming stalwart. Salem, under the pas- 
torate of William Roberts, was swinging into the 
line of victory. Lebanon was enlarging. The San- 
tiam Academy was full. Calapooya Circuit was in 
a flame of revival. Iva Creole, Santiam Forks, 
Mary's River, Long Tom, and Eugene City were 
under vigorous march. Willamette University was 
magnificently doing its great work. A Bible agent, 
Rev. L. C. Phillips, had entered upon his blessed 
service of disseminating Bibles. Isaac Dillon had 
come from Cincinnati Conference to join the found- 
ers of an empire in laying broad and deep the foun- 
dations of many generations. 

The Conference session of 1854 was held in 
Belknap Settlement, in Benton County, Oregon, 
fifty miles south from Salem. Bishop Simpson was 
assigned to hold it ; but he was detained by an acci- 
dent to his steamer. The writer was elected the 
president of the Conference. The business of the 
Conference was well forward by Sunday. The dea- 
cons and elders were elected. On Sunday morning 
the Conference sermon had been preached by me, 
from Acts vi, 5-8 : *'And they chose Stephen, a man 
full of faith and the Holy Ghost. . . . And 
Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders 
and miracles among the people." 

The audience was large. The interest was con- 
siderable. I had just reached the peroration of 
my discourse, when I saw a man, wearing a linen 
duster and bearing a gripsack, enter the log 



BISHOP SIMPSON IN OREGON. 1 57 



church and seat himself just inside the door. I 
had never seen Bishop Simpson, nor had I ever seen 
a likeness of him ; but I said : ''If the gentleman who 
has just entered the house is Bishop Simpson, for 
whom we have been looking so long, he will 
please come forward, and I will introduce him to 
the audience." He came forward, and he was intro- 
duced. He delivered an earnest exhortation, an- 
nounced a discourse by himself for three o'clock, 
when the ordination of deacons and elders would 
take place. His sermon was one of great power. 
In the course of it he quoted the words of Paul 
to the elders of the Church at Ephesus, when he 
said: ''But none of these things move me, neither 
count I my own life dear unto myself, that I might 
finish my course with joy and the ministry, which 
I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the 
gospel of the grace of God." His rendering of 
that part of his subject was exceedingly dramatic. 
The people were intensely interested. Some wept, 
and others shouted. Many who heard that sermon 
will probably never forget it in time nor in eternity. 
Then calling up the deacons-elect, he ordained 
them. A brief recess was taken. The lunch was 
eaten in the chapel yard. On reassembling, the 
bishop preached a marvelous sermon, and then he 
ordained the elders. The hold which "Bishop Simp- 
son had upon the hearts of his frontier audience, 
in the log church in the Belknap Settlement, was 
unmistakable. The Conference minute business 
was concluded on Monday. On Tuesday the ses- 
sion was adjourned. The members felt that they 



158 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

had been through a Jerusalem Pentecost, and were 
now ready for another year of toil and struggle and 
victory. 

I insert here excerpta from a letter which I 
published in the Western Christian Advocate, July 
2, 1884, soon after the death of Bishop Simpson, 
which occurred June 18, 1884. It will doubtless 
have interest for the readers of this volume : 

THE LATE BISHOP SIMPSON-REMINISCENCES OF 
HIM IN OREGON AND ELSEWHERE. 

When, on Wednesday morning, June i8th last, 
the chariot stopped at 1334 Arch Street, Philadelphia, 
for God's faithful servant, a good man, greatly be- 
loved and honored, tried, true, and brave, entered it 
and ascended to his crowning. Telegraphy had made 
all the world as real spectators of Bishop Simpson's 
ascension as Elisha and the sons of the prophets 
were of Elijah's, As Elijah had asked his colleague 
and successor what he should do for him, and had 
promised to grant his request, so the good bishop, 
standing amid his colleagues and his brethren of the 
General Conference of 1884, the close of the session, 
said : "It is exceedingly gratifying to me, as I feel 
that the shadows are gathering around me and others, 
to see young men, truly cultured and devoted to the 
cause of Christ, able to come forward and take the 
reins of the Church and guide it so successfully on- 
ward. May God be gracious to them, and make them 
greater than the fathers !'* 

The purpose of this paper is to give incidents in 
Bishop Simpson's life which came under my personal 
notice. They will have interest to his many friends 
and admirers, because they illustrate the man in 
his less public and official life. Having never been 



REMINISCENCES. 



159 



published, they will have the added charm of fresh- 
ness. Most of these occurred in Oregon. One of 
them, and among the most thrilling, occurred in 
Washington, D. C, on the next day after Mr. Lin- 
coln's reinauguration. Bishop Simpson's first offi- 
cial visit to Oregon was in 1854. Bishop Ames had 
preceded him there in 1853. 

I first saw Bishop Simpson in the Conference room 
in Oregon. The Conference met that year in Bel- 
knap Settlement, Benton County, about a hundred and 
twenty miles above Portland, the chief seaport. 
Steamboatingon the Upper Willamette was suspended. 
There were then no stages nor other public convey- 
ances up and down the valley. The bishop had been 
hindered by an accident to his ocean steamer. He 
reached Portland on Thursday, the day after the ses- 
sion had opened. He procured a man to take him to 
the seat of the Conference. But this person, not know- 
ing where Belknap Settlement was, conveyed him to 
Polk County instead of Benton. He entered the log 
church on Sunday morning, just as the writer was 
closing his sermon. No one there had ever seen him. 
I said, "If the gentleman who has just entered the 
room is Bishop Simpson, he will please advance to 
the pulpit." He came forward. I introduced him. 
He gave the cause of the delay as a shipwreck, 
through which he had just passed. He said that 
when in imminent peril, and amid consternation and 
alarm, he had been greatly comforted by the lines of 
Henry Kirke White, some of which he repeated tUus : 

"Once, on the raging seas I rode; 

The storm was loud, the night was dark; 
The ocean yawned, and rvidely blowed 

The wind that tossed my foundering bark. 

Deep horror then my vitals froze; 

Death-struck, I ceased the tide to stem; 
When suddenly a star arose, — 

It was the Star of Bethlehem." 



l6o SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



He told how sweetly thrilling the lines were, and how 
deeply they had moved him, adding: 

"Now safely moored, my perils o'er, 
I'll sing, first iu night's diadem, 
For ever and for evermore, 

The Star, the Star of Bethlehem." 

The effect on the audience was strongly marked. 
Many wept ; some shouted. The bishop spent sev- 
eral weeks with me, visiting different points of inter- 
est. One Saturday afternoon, in Salem, he inquired: 
"What did Bishop Ames preach on last year in 
Salem?" I replied that Bishop Ames had preached 
a most memorable sermon on "Faith." The next day, 
in the same pulpit, and to many of the same people, 
Bishop Simpson preached his matchless sermon on 
"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even 
our faith," and "Have faith in God." The effect was 
indescribable. Breathless silence prevailed at times, 
succeeded and broken by sobbing and weeping and 
shouts. He carried his hearers up in thought and 
feeling as far as science and reason, and sight and 
promise, and experience and imagination, could go 
toward the Invisible and the Eternal. And then, 
while expectation was keyed to its utmost pitch, he 
climaxed the thought, by quoting: 

"Faith lends its realizing light; 

The clouds disperse, the shadows fly: 
• The Invisible appears in sight, 

And God is seen by mortal eye." 

Tears of joy and shouts of rapture attested the magic 
of his eloquence. 

Tlie greatest triumph of his preaching power 
which I witnessed was on the occasion of Lincoln's 



REMINISCENCES. 



i6i 



reinaiiguration. The inauguration-day, Saturday, was 
dreary, cloudy, drizzly. Just as Mr. Lincoln took the 
oath of office, the clouds parted, and sunshine flooded 
the scene. The next day the bishop preached in the 
House of Representatives to a most distinguished 
audience. Senators, congressmen, diplomats, secre- 
taries, judges, generals, admirals, and many others, 
were present. Floors, galleries, aisles were crowded. 
In front of the speaker's desk sat Mr. Lincoln. A 
lady led the singing. Prayer was offered by Dr, 
Thomas, afterwards killed by the Modocs. The 
bishop's text was, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all 
men unto me." He spoke of the power of Christ to 
diminish war and promote peace, and then, as if 
recollecting himself, he referred to the Civil War then 
flagrant, as though it might be considered fatal 
to his argument, and he added : "I am not much of a 
believer in signs and omens ; but when, yesterday, 
just as the old Administration expired and the new 
one began, the rifted clouds let God's sunshine flow, 
I could not but regard it as an augury of returning 
peace, and that the war would soon close, and the 
new Administration would be one of peace." In- 
stantly, as if by electricity, the audience were stirred ; 
they cheered earnestly; many rose to their feet; hats 
were thrown up ; men embraced each other, and wept 
and shouted. Mr. Lincoln was vigorously rapping 
the floor with his cane, the big tears chasing each 
other down his bronzed face. It was a masterly 
triumph of human eloquence, set on fire by sympathy 
and Christian patriotism. He subsequently delivered 
the same discourse in Chillicothe to the wonder and 
admiration of the preachers of the Cincinnati and 
Ohio Conferences. I heard him repeat this dis- 
course in Portland, Oregon. Its effect there was 
marvelous. 
II 



1 62 SI XT y- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

Bishop Simpson impressed me, in a very inti- 
mate association with him for three weeks, with 
his deep spirituaHty and fehowship with God. He 
was a man of rich reUgious experience; as much 
so as any man I had ever known. Several remark- 
able incidents of his visit are ineffaceably fixed in 
my mind. They will remain with me as long as 
memory shall hold her place. The incidents which 
follow illustrate certain Scripture statements. They 
also enforce them; as, ''Cast thy bread upon the 
waters, and it shall be gathered after many days;" 
and "Your labor shall not be in vain in the Lord;" 
and especially, "The eyes of the Lord run to and 
fro in the earth, to show himself strong in behalf of 
them whose hearts are right with him." A trip to 
the Dalles of the Columbia was crowded with ad- 
venturous incidents, some of which were of thrill- 
ing power. The French word Dalles denotes a 
narrow passage of waters. At the place we were 
to visit, the whole volume of the Columbia River's 
waters rush and roar and tumble between perpen- 
dicular basaltic walls, a hundred feet below, with a 
power and a majesty of wonderful sublimity. The 
passage is so narrow that a boy could easily throw 
a stone from one bank to the other. This is one 
of the great wonders of nature. It equals Niagara 
in its weird enchantment. But it was not alone, 
nor chiefly, to see the Dalles that we went. Our 
passage there involved very important business 
relating to our Missionary Society and our Church. 
The passage to the Cascades, seventy miles from 
Portland, was in a river steamer. A portage of five 



A WAYSIDE INTERVIEW. 



163 



miles obstructs the navigation of the Columbia. 
Above the Cascades, a small steam-launch plied to 
the Dalles, forty-five miles. This launch was dis- 
abled at the time of our trip, and we were obliged 
to make the passage by canoe. This was the bish- 
op's first voyage by canoe. The canoe was forty 
feet long. It contained fish-nets, dogs, three 
squaws, two Indians, two half-drunken white men, 
myself, and the bishop, to say nothing of innumer- 
able fleas. The two white men were both drunk 
on very mean, mischievous whisky. One of them 
was coarse and brutal in his nature. The other was 
more gentle, and evidently more educated and re- 
fined. The latter, in the conversation the bishop 
afterwards held with him, admitted that he was a 
student in Indiana Asbury University when Simp- 
son was its president. They were profane and ob- 
scene in their filthy discourse. They were appar- 
ently seeking to provoke and exasperate their cler- 
ical fellow-passengers. The bishop was mild and 
patient. After the coarse-fibered one had fallen 
ofif into a stupor, his associate ceased talking. After 
a while the bishop said to him very kindly, *'My 
friend, is your mother living?" ''O yes," was the 
reply. 'Where does she live?" "In Indiana." 
''Did you attend Asbury University?" "Yes," said 
he. The bishop addressed other like questions. 
"Is your mother a praying woman?" to which he 
replied affirmatively. "Does your mother pray 
for you?" "O yes," said he, "every day. I should 
have been in hell long ago but for her prayers." 
Once more the bishop addressed him: "I would 



1 64 SIXTY' ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

not like to seem impertinent ; but there is one other 
question I would like to ask you." "Certainly," 
said the now serious and thoughtful young man; 
"any question you please." In a tender, gentle 
tone, and in a somewhat pathetic manner, the 
bishop said, "Do you think your mother knows 
what kind of a Hfe you are leading?" The young 
prodigal here quite broke down, burst into tears, 
and said, "I would not have her know it for the 
world; it would break her heart." The bishop fol- 
lowed this up with other kindly words. Reaching 
Dog River, on the Oregon side, at dusk, the young 
man crossed over the river to what is now Wash- 
ington State, and the bishop saw him no more. 
We staid in the Indian's tepee for the night. We 
went to bed — our bed on the sand — supperless. 
The dried salmon which the Indian ofifered us, after 
he had toasted it upon a stick, smelled too 
rank, and we could not eat it. This occurred in 
March, 1854. 

In October, 1864, I was going down to the 
Dalles from Umatilla, on a large river steamer on 
the Columbia. There were many passengers re- 
turning from the Salmon River mines. One of 
them inquired my name, and, after I gave it to him, 
he recalled the canoe ride from the Cascades to 
Dog River, and he asked me if I remembered it. 
He said he was one of those two passengers; that 
the other one, whom he had then called "Sandy," 
had been for several years in the State prison ; and 
then, in answer to my inquiries, he said that that 
day had been a day of destiny for him; the ques- ^ 



BLESSED RESULTS. 



165 



tions of the bishop had led to his reformation. He 
had ceased his drink-habit, and left off swearing, 
and had begun a life of prayer. God had converted 
him. He was a happy man. He had a wife and 
three children, a half-section of land, and money 
in the bank, and he was on his way to heaven, and 
his wife also, and he owed it all to the wise counsel 
and the kindly treatment of that good man, the 
bishop ; and he desired me, whenever I should have 
the opportunity, to tell the bishop that his faithful 
seed-sowing of more than ten years before had 
brought its harvest in due time. In June, 1868, 
on the summit of the Rockies, I told the bishop the 
story of his success in that wayside seed-sowing 
which he did on the Indian's canoe fourteen years 
before. It was a notable fulfillment of the promise, 
*'He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious 
seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, 
bringing his sheaves with him." 



CHAPTER XIII. 



AFTER our first day's canoe-sailing and our 
L night at Dog River, we embarked the next day 
in the same canoe for the Dalles. The wind was 
blowing a stiff gale up the river. The river being 
in freshet, the wind caused high waves to roll across 
the river; but we were plowing through them ten 
knots an hour. The bishop became nervous, and 
we went ashore. There was no shelter, and the 
March wind was bleak and cold. We relaunched 
our craft, and reached the Dalles in an hour's sail- 
ing. After transacting our business at the Dalles 
military post, we secured Indian ponies, and rode 
tip the river four or five miles to see the Grand 
'Coulee, where the river had once flowed, and to 
see the Grand Dalles, or narrow passage of waters. 

We had to ascend a cafion to find safe crossing 
of a small but swollen, unfordable stream. We 
crossed on a log and descended the canon ; we saw 
the wonderful passage of the great Columbia, which 
carries nearly as much water as the Mississippi. 
Returning up the cafion for our log-bridge cross- 
ing, we encountered a large, gray wolf, who for a 
time refused to give us the right of way. By dint 
of bold riding and loud hallooing and swinging our 
lariats, we started his wolfship, and proceeded on 
our way. Emerging later from the canon into the 
open, we encountered a large cavalcade of Indians, 
some two hundred, all mounted and armed. There 

i66 



ON THE COLUMBIA. 



167 



was a general unrest among all the Indian tribes 
in Oregon. Several murders by the Indians had 
occurred, and an Indian war broke out within a 
few months after this. The procession halted. We 
were in deadly peril. The bishop said, ''Are we 
not in great danger?" I told him that if the In- 
dians should find us, or believe us to be, Indian 
agents or traders, or United States military, our 
scalps would be taken within half an hour; but if 
I could convince them that we were Methodist 
preachers, I believed we would not be harmed. We 
boldly rode up to the head of the column. I ad- 
dressed one of the chiefs in the Chinook jargon, 
"Claihaiam six," which is ''How are you, chief?" 
He answered me in English, "I do not talk jargon." 
"Where did you learn to talk English?" "In Ith- 
aca, N. Y." "How did you go there?" "With 
Commissioner Parker." I introduced Bishop 
Simpson to him, and through him to the Indians 
present, as a great ministerial "Tyee," or chief; and 
Bishop Simpson introduced me as a great Oregon 
chief, or minister of the gospel. We rode down 
together to the Dalles, and had some interesting 
conversation. 

In descending the Columbia, the bishop pre- 
ferred to sail in a larger craft than a canoe, which, 
in our ascending the river, had given him so much 
alarm. I secured passage on a sloop, which was 
used for shipping wood and other freight up the 
river. We were much baffled by the persistent up- 
river winds. In trying to tack we were unable to 
make progress, and for twenty-four hours we made 



1 68 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

only three miles. I became restless. I walked back 
to the Dalles, and chartered a ship's lighter, and 
secured a crew of six strong Indians. We took the 
bishop and our baggage aboard, and pulled down 
some two or three miles further to a bend in the 
river, where for ten miles the river ran due west, 
and where the wind had unobstructed sweep. We 
rowed f(5r two hours, without making any progress. 
We landed and spent the night on the river bank, 
under the lee of a great rock, with our feet to the 
fire. The next morning the wind had changed to 
the east. We were pulling our boat by oars ! The 
sloop came by and passed us, arriving at the Cas- 
cades some hours before us. Entering the Willa- 
mette River, we noticed that the river craft had 
colors at half-mast. Inquiry gave us the informa- 
tion that the steamer Gazelle had, the morning be- 
fore, blown up at the wharf, killing nearly all on 
board. That was the boat we should have taken, 
had not baffling winds delayed us. We felt that a 
sheltering Providence had preserved our lives 
against our persistent efforts to reach Portland at 
an earlier moment. 

The bishop's visit had been made a great bless- 
ing to the entire Church and ministers of Oregon. 
His counsels were wise. His appointments of the 
preachers were judicious. 

In 1855 we had Bishop Baker to hold our Con- 
ference. That year we elected two delegates to 
the General Conference; viz., William Roberts and 
Thomas H. Pearne. The General Conference met 
in Indianapolis, the first time it had ever met so far 



GENERAL CONFERENCE, 1 8^6, 1 69 



West. The session was a somewhat exciting and 
contentious one. The great issue dividing the Con- 
ference was the rule on slavery, which it was 
thought should be made stronger; and the presid- 
ing eldership, which it was claimed should be abol- 
ished. The Conference was conservative, and 
neither of the objects sought by the Abolitionists 
on the one hand, and the reformers of the polity of 
Methodism, prevailed. In discussing the slavery 
question, a somewhat amusing episode occurred. 
Dr. James F'loy and Dr. John McClintock debated 
in Shakespearean phrase, one of them remarking, 
in the language of Antony in his oration : 

" My heart is in the coffin there with Csesar, 
And I must pause till it come back to me." 

The other responded : 

" I^et all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 
Thy God's, and truth's." 

"To thine own self be true; 
And it must follow as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man." 

Bishop Morris, who was presiding, said, ''Brethren, 
let us turn our attention from William Shakespeare 
to the Methodist Discipline." 

In discussing the presiding elder question, one 
of the speakers, Barnes M. Hall, of the Troy Con- 
ference, a man of splendid presence and of consider- 
able ability as a speaker, made a statement, which 
was unguarded and doubtless unwise, to the effect 
that he had successively filled the office of presid- 
ing elder in the Troy Conference on two of the best 



170 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

districts in the Conference. In his judgment, and 
in the judgment of some of the best ministers and 
laymen, while he had probably filled it as well 
as any of his predecessors, neither he nor they be- 
lieved that as a presiding elder he had earned the 
salt in his porridge. I reached over to Peter Cart- 
wright, and said to him, ''I wish you would shoot 
him between wind and water, for he has laid him- 
self open, and he can be punctured." Cartwright 
obtained the floor, and remarked that he had been 
presiding elder continuously for thirty-six years, 
and had known all the bishops of Methodism from 
Asbury down, yet he thought the Episcopal Com- 
mittee should go for the bishops who appointed 
Brother Hall to districts for eight successive years ; 
who, in his own opinion, and in the opinion of the 
best ministers and laymen and ministers in the dis- 
tricts he served, had not earned the salt in his 
mush. Mr. Hall arose to a question of privilege. 
Dr. Cartwright had misrepresented him; he had 
said nothing about "mush he spoke of porridge. 
Dr. Cartwright said he had not misrepresented him 
at all. In his country it was called porridge; but 
in Cartwright's the same thing was called mush. 

I met Bishop Morris in one of the lobbies of the 
State House, in which the General Conference was 
held, on the last night of the Conference — a very 
hot night in June, the 8th — and asked him if he 
would visit Oregon during the ensuing quadren- 
nium. He said, "No; wouldn't I cut a fine figure 
riding- over the hills of Oregon on a mule?" When 
it is remembered that Bishop Morris was immensely 



PA CIFIC CHRISTIAN ADVOCA TE FO UNDED. 1 7 1 

corpulent, his reply will be better understood. Up 
to that session of the General Conference the sta- 
tistics of the Methodist Episcopal Church had been 
limited to but few items. Upon my procurement, 
the range of the statistics was made to include bap- 
tisms, deaths, ministerial support, and the value of 
Church property. 

In 1854 it was determined by the preachers and 
laymen of Oregon to issue a weekly religious news- 
paper, to be controlled by a joint stock company. 
T. H. Pearne was elected editor, and he was di- 
rected to procure an office and a six months' sup- 
ply of paper. But as this had to be shipped by 
sailing vessel around Cape Horn, it was long in 
coming. The name Pacific Christian Advocate 
was finally adopted on the motion of Alvin F. Wal- 
ler, one of t^e veterans of the Conference. The first 
number was issued September 5, 1855. On Sep- 
tember 5, 1895, the paper celebrated its fortieth 
anniversary. The issue of that date bears a half- 
tone likeness of myself and successors, Benson, 
Dillon, Acton, H. K. Hines, W. S. Harrington, 
and the present incumbent, A. N. Fisher, D. D. 
At the request of the editor, I addressed the follow- 
ing to the paper, which appeared in its issue of the 
date last given: 

SEPTEMBER 5, 1855-SEPTEMBER 5, 1895. 

Between these dates four decades have rolled their 
events into history. A generation has come and gone. 
The Northwest has developed into populous, magnifi- 
cent States. Slavery has gone down ; rebellion has 



172 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

been suppressed by a long, bloody Civil War. The 
world has advanced. The kingdom of Christ has 
been widely extended. The world has been approach- 
ing its glorious destiny of truth and righteousness. 
The end draweth nigh. 

How the flying years have sped after one another 
adown the swiftly-receding past! How long, and yet 
how short, seems the term of forty years since the 
Pacific Christian Advocate was launched in Salem^ 
Oregon ! Of all who then participated in the estab- 
lishment and conduct of the paper, and who were its 
patrons and readers, how few, comparatively, remain! 
How many of the early Oregonians, who were then 
active and potential, have since left these mortal 
shores for the invisible and rmknown realm into 
which all of earth's former generations have entered ! 
All this is the first suggestion of the occasion and the 
hour. Only survivors of epochs and movements can 
fully appreciate — if indeed they can — the ^reat change 
of actors and agents which forty years make. In a 
new and forming period these changes are all the 
more impressive. They stand out very vividly and 
boldly in the receding perspective. 

THE CHIEF ACTORS. 

In the Oregon Methodist circles of that period, 
that were active and effective, a few persons stand 
out prominently in my memory. Foremost and com- 
manding, was James H. Wilbur, the vigorous, self- 
sacrificing, laborious, popular, and useful man, be- 
cause he was so manly and noble. William Roberts, 
the accomplished, gentlemanly minister and super- 
intendent of the mission ; Alvan F. Waller, staid, se- 
date, sensible, good ; J. L. Parrish, genial, practical, 
and of strong personality; David Leslie, the patriarch 
of the early comers, kindly, thoughtful, devout; 



FOUNDERS OF THE ADVOCATE. 



Nehemiah Doane, retiring, •Linobtrusive ; Luther T. 
Woodward ; John FHnn, with his great, Irish soul, 
full of sympathy and love ; Francis S. Hoyt, resource- 
ful, meditative, lovable, president of the Willamette 
University ; Dr. Wilson, one of the earliest of the 
Oregon missionaries ; Isaac Dillon, scholarly, cheer- 
ful; Gustavus, Joseph, and Harvey K, Hines, the 
strong, brave trio ; William Helm, an earnest, conse- 
crated man. And of laymen, George Abernethy_, 
ex-governor; Alexander Abernethy, his brother; 
Alanson Beers ; George Holman and his noble wife ; 
James R. Robb ; Charles Craft ; Hamilton Campbell. 
Others there were : C. S. Kingsley, John McKinney, 
Enoch; Joseph, and Abram Garrison, Fabritus 
Smith, C. Alderson, S. Matthews, J. F. Devore, and 
others ; some of whom may yet be living. Of the 
thirty-one named, I can recall but nine who yet re- 
main. All of those named were persons of great 
energy and influence, who left their impress upon the 
new State. So many of them have gone to their 
silent rest, — 

" Time, like an ever-rolling stream, 
Bears all its sons away; 
They fly, forgotten, as a dream 
Dies at tlie opening day." 

I forbear this line of somber reminiscences. 

ORIGIN OF THE PACIFIC CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. 

In 1854, after repeated talks on the urgent need 
there was for a religious paper as the organ of Oregon 
Methodism, the purpose ripened into plans. It was 
determined to organize a joint stock company to es- 
tablish and issue a religious weekly in Oregon. It 
was estimated to cost some three thousand or four 
thousand dollars to purchase an office and a six 



174 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

months' supply of paper. Articles of agreement were 
prepared. George and Alexander Abernetliy, James 
R. Robb, Beers, Holman, Kingsley, Waller, Wilbur, 
Parrish, Pearne, Hines, and perhaps one or two others, 
subscribed the necessary amounts. I wrote to Francis 
Hall, Esquire, a relative of mine, who was then the 
publisher and proprietor of the New York Commercial 
Advertiser , to purchase and forward to us the neces- 
sary outfit, remitting to him the funds required. They 
were nearly six months in coming around Cape Horn 
to Oregon. 

THE NAMB OF THE PAPER. 

We had considerable study and care in agreeing 
upon a name for the new paper proposed. The 
Methodists of California had already projected and 
started a paper called the California Christian Advo- 
cate. The California Congregationahsts were issuing 
The Pacific. The Southern Methodists of California 
had started a paper, called, as I now remember, rather 
indistinctly, the Pacific Methodist. The Oregon Chris- 
tian Advocate was suggested, but rejected as being too 
local and narrow. The North Pacific Herald was pro- 
posed, but rejected as being entirely too long. At 
last the Pacific Christian Advocate was suggested and 
adopted. Forty years of history have vindicated the 
wisdom of the name selected. 

PLACE OF PUBLICATION. 

The paper was first published in Salem. The ofifice 
stood back from the river in the sparsely-settled part 
of the town. The building selected was small, incon- 
venient, unsuitable ; but it seemed to be the only place 
to be obtained. It was a humble, unostentatious be- 
ginning. After a few months the paper was removed 
to Portland, where it should have gone from the first. 



PACIFIC CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. 1 75 



THB FIRST ISSUE. 

The first number of the paper was badly printed. 
The impression was dim, indistinct, and bkirred. The 
ink was not evenly distributed by the roller upon the 
form. It was difficult to read. The general appear- 
ance was unpleasant and unsatisfactory. To me it 
was especially disappointing, as, also, it was to most 
of the friends of the enterprise. The selected and con- 
tributed articles were of fair quality. These defects 
werfe early remedied and soon forgotten in the im- 
proved issues which were sent out not long after. The 
first editorial, or leading article, filled about a column 
and a quarter or a column and a third of the old style — 
four pages, blanket sheet. Its subject was an outline 
of the scope and purposes of the new weekly journal. 

CIRCUIyATION, SALARY OF EDITOR, ETC. 

The circulation of the Pacific Christian Advocate 
was at first rather small. It slowly increased, until, in 
the first year, it had grown to eighteen hundred or 
two thousand. Many subscribed for additional copies 
to the one for their own use, and sent them back to 
the States to relatives on the Atlantic board. Some 
subscribed and paid for three or four copies to send 
East, to assist in building up and sustaining the paper. 
It always had many good friends, who nobly stood 
by it. The expenses of publishing the paper were so 
large, and its income was so limited, that we were 
compelled to use the strictest economy. The editor's 
salary for several years was seven hundred dollars a 
year. For this small sum he was obliged to do the 
labor of two or three persons. His duties were various, 
including a somewhat wide range. He kept all the 
books for subscriptions and advertising; he mailed 
all the papers sent out; he collected all the accounts, 



176 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

and paid all the expenses of the publication; he was 
publisher, bookkeeper, proof-reader, editor, and gen- 
eral choreboy. For all this overwork and drudgery 
there was never any extra pay nor specific remuner- 
ation. It was often impossible to pay the printers 
and meet current expenses without borrowing money. 
This I often did, sometimes carrying a debt of several 
hundred dollars. As I recall those early times, and 
the bufifet and struggle through which we came, I 
am surprised that we succeeded as well as we did. 

. EVOLUTION. 

The joint stock company fell through because of 
the non-payment of subscriptions. I was soon the 
sole proprietor of the plant, which had cost three 
thousand five hundred dollars. I had to borrow money 
to pay the purchase bills and current expenses. 

In May, 1856, I was a delegate to the General 
Conference which met in Indianapolis. William 
Roberts was my co-delegate. The paper was edited 
in my absence by Rev. Dr. Hoyt, then president of 
Willamette University. The Conference bought the 
plant, and instructed the New York book agents to 
continue the publication. I was elected editor. In 
i860 I was re-elected. In 1864 I declined a re-election. 

MISSION AND HISTORY OF THE PAPER. 

The paper has fulfilled a high and important mis- 
sion. When the Constitution of the State was formed 
and adopted, the paper made itself felt in favor of 
Oregon 'as a free State. There was a strong efifort 
made to adopt a slavery clause. The presence of a 
large part of the population' of Oregon as immigrants 
from slaveholding States rendered it strongly prob- 
able that the slavery schedule would be adopted. The 



INFLUENCE OF THE ADVOCATE. 177 

paper advocated a free State, and it opposed other ob- 
jectionable features during the formation of the con- 
stitution, so that its mission in that direction was 
vitally important. Then, when secession was rife, and 
the Breckenridge and Lane faction of the Democratic 
party tried to swing California and Oregon into the 
secession movement, the editor of the Pacific Advocate 
rung the bell loudly for the Union cause, and against 
secession, adding to his editorials on this behalf his 
personal influence in the pulpit and on the rostrum 
for the Union. 

The paper has been an important factor in pro- 
moting the growth, stability, and usefulness of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in Oregon and Wash- 
ington and Idaho States. It has most amply repaid 
all it has cost in its effective influence in conserving 
and furthering the cause of truth and righteousness. 

SUCCESSORS. 

The honored men who have succeeded me in the 
conduct of the paper have deserved well of the Church, 
not only on the Pacific Coast, but also throughout the 
connection. Noble men, able men, God-honoring 
men, I love and admire them, and I pray for them 
every day. I wish and I predict for the Pacific Chris- 
tian Advocate a very glorious future, grander and 
higher than its past. 

THE LATE DWIGHT WIIvLIAMS. 

In the anniversary issue of the Pacific Christian 
Advocate for its fortieth year, the first article on the 
first page is a hymn -written by this modern poet 
of Methodism, entitled, ''Looking Backward." In 
my first station, after my admission on trial into 
the Oneida Conference in 1839, as I have elsewhere 
12 



178 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 



shown, fifty-nine years ago, Dwight Williams and 
his saintly mother became members of my charge. 
He was somewhat younger than I ; but our fellow- 
ship was very sweet. When my father, some years 
after my first pastorate in Aladison, became pastor 
there, he found Dwight Williams, then, as always, 
true and faithful. It was fortunate that the Pacific 
Christian Advocate could include this poetic genius 
to v\Tite up the occasion. He has done it nobly 
and well. All honor to him and to those who are 
staying by the stuff! They will not fail of their 
great reward. But to the poetic lines: 

"LOOKING BACKWARD. 

" Down to the vale of Long Ago, 

That slumbers in the haze below, 

We turn as from a mountain tower, 

To feel the rapture of an hour, 
As o'er the spaces measured 
With trophies we have treasured, 

We mark the iron path of power ; 

Where rugged toil and bold design, 

With hero faith and love benign, 

Have led us to this outlook wide 

With far-off visions beautified. 

Four slow decades — a tale enscrolled, 
And by ten thousand voices told, 
Enversed in songs of libert}-, 
Inscribed on temples of the free — 

Romantic years of story, 

And new found fields of glory, 
The preludes grand of what shall be ; 
For ah, the Prince of Peace leaves not 
The world beset with evil plot ; 
Yes, we have seen his charioteers 
Along the valley of the years. 



LOOKING BACKWARD. 



Is He not here the 'Light of men,' 
To diamond-point the living pen 
That writes of Him and his great peace, 
Till it shall run with no surcease ? 

Not chariots and horses, 

We harness swifter forces; 
For evil, too, with dread increase, 
Rides sumptuously on paths of power. 
Or sits defiant in his tower. 
We ride as swiftly, and our star 
lycads on to triumph fields afar. 

What means it that our King and Lord 
Came not to conquer by the sword? 
Could he take up so mean a thing 
Whose orders take the lightning's wing, 
Whose chariots go with wonder 
From chambers of the thunder 
While angel legions he could bring? 
Ah no! he calleth heroes of his own 
Invincible in him alone ! 
Look down and see the archways grand, 
As on the path of years they stand. 



All praise to thee, thou lowly One, 
Once here, now on thy star-gemmed throne 
King of the present, King of the past, 
Lord of the ages, First and Last. 

The vision is before us, 

Thy beauty shineth o'er us; 
All power and love are thine, thou hast 
The golden scepter evermore ; 
No boast of ours ; thee we adore, 
And bless thee as we look below, 
Down to the vale of Long Ago." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

IN 1862, I think, Bishop Simpson made his last 
visit to Oregon, during my stay there. Three 
things stand out in my memory in connection with 
that visit. One was, the bishop's sermon at the 
Conference, and his address to the candidates for 
admission into the traveHng connection. A second 
was, his address on the state of the country to an 
immense week-night audience in Portland, Oregon. 
The demonstrations were not equal to what I wit- 
nessed in Washington three years later, as already 
described. Nor yet was it equal to what tradition 
describes as to his discourse at Chillicothe, on 
occasion of the reunion of the Ohio and Cincinnati 
Conferences. Yet the effort was recognized by 
those present as one of the finest and most effect- 
ively eloquent of addresses ever heard. The third 
was, a six or seven days' ride from Portland, Ore- 
gon, in my -buggy, with Bishop Simpson, to 
Yreka, California. We usually drove forty or fifty 
miles in each day. The weather was charming. 
No rain fell during the whole trip. My two horses 
carried us the day's trip usually by the middle of 
the afternoon. A messenger was sent out to in- 
vite in the neighbors to a religious meeting. The 
bishop would give us a sweet, unpretentious fire- 
side, or sitting-room, talk on some previous topic, 
and the subdued and subduing influence of those 
meetings I can never forget. 

180 



INTERESTING TRIP. 



I8l 



The bishop was in the spirit of genial and 
blessed fellowship. The people were often moved 
to tears, and sometimes to shouts, by his kindly and 
stirring words. I never enjoyed a man's conver- 
sation and spirit more than his on that occasion. 
We never were without interesting and profitable 
topics, and never was a person more able nor more 
willing than he to give out his views and his kindly 
fellowship to his traveling companion. The return 
trip was beguiled of its loneliness by the memory 
of the drive from Portland to California. He was 
always welcomed and hospitably treated where we 
stopped. I am sure that in all the famiUes where 
w^e stopped that visit w^ill be remembered in years 
to come by those who entertained us. I was led to 
compare that drive with those which Bishop As- 
bury and his traveling companion made all over 
this continent a hundred years ago and later. The 
social influence of the early ministers in these 
fireside occasions was one of its most prolific of 
blessings. 

The Pacific Christian Advocate started out with a 
subscription-hst of about fourteen hundred. But 
after a few months, it was found that the paper 
could be much better issued in Portland; and it 
was removed there. Its circulation and advertising 
business greatly increased after its removal. In 
1856 the General Conference ordered the purchase 
of the outfit, and elected T. H. Pearne the editor. 
In i860 he was re-elected; but in 1864 he declined a 
re-election. His salary was fixed at seven hundred 
dollars, and for this allowance he edited and pub- 



1 82 SIXTY- ONE yEARS OF ITINERANT JI^ORA'. 

lished and mailed the paper with his own hands for 
four years. This sum was increased later to one 
thousand dollars. The paper became a very impor- 
tant factor in promoting the interests of Methodism 
in its work in Oregon. With varying measures of 
success, the enterprise has been maintained for 
forty-three years. It is still a vigorous and potent 
agency for truth and righteousness in that most 
interesting and growing field. 

The action taken as to the Pacific Christian Ad- 
vocate was as follows, viz. : 

Resolved, i, That the Book Agents at New York 
be directed to establish a Book Depository^ and pub- 
lish a weekly paper in Oregon Territory. 

Resolved, 2, That we advise the Book Agents at 
New York to purchase, at a cost not exceeding three 
tliousand five hundred dollars, the publishing office 
already established, and continue the publication of 
the Pacific Christian Advocate. 

Resolved, 3, That the Oregon Conference be di- 
rected to appoint a Publishing Committee of five, 
w^ho shall have power to fix the salary of the editor 
of the Pacific Christian Advocate, audit his accounts, 
and have a general oversight of his editorial conduct, 
and make an annual report of the same to the Oregon 
Conference and to the Book Agents at New York. 

The same General Conference provided, also, 
for a Committee on Appeals, to have the handling 
and decision of appeals. A special committee of 
not less than fifteen of the members of the General 



GENERAL CONFERENCE COURT OF APPEALS. 1 83 

Conference was also provided for, and their duties 
and powers are thus defined: 

The General Conference may try appeals from 
members of Annual Conferences who may have been 
censured, suspended, expelled, or located, without 
their consent, by a committee of not less than fifteen 
of its members, nor more than one member from each 
delegation, who, in the presence of a bishop presid- 
ing, and one or more of the secretaries of the Confer- 
ence keeping a faithful record of all the proceedings 
had, shall have full power to hear and determine the 
case, subject to the rules and regulations which govern 
the said Conference in such proceedings ; and the 
records made, and the papers submitted, in such trial, 
shall be presented to the Conference, and be filed and 
preserved with the papers of that body. 

Two years later I was appointed by the Ore- 
gon Conference to defend its action in the case of 
one of its members, who had been convicted of 
traducing the character of one of his fellow-mem- 
bers, and subjected to a reprimand from Bishop 
Simpson, who presided in the Conference of 1862, 
and which we were informed had been appealed to 
the General Conference of 1864. I was a delegate 
that year in connection with James H. Wilbur, who 
was employed by the appellant to conduct his case. 
When the case was called, I made a motion be- 
fore the court that the appeal should not be enter- 
tained, for the following reasons : The appellant 
had forfeited his right to that appeal (i) by locat- 
ing from the Oregon Conference, and (2) by his re- 



184 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

admission into the Baltimore Conference. -Bishop 
E. S. Janes decided that every traveling minister 
had the right of appeal, and that my motion was 
therefore out of order, and it could not be enter- 
tained by him. From his decision I appealed, and 
stated the grounds of my appeal, as follows: The 
Court of Appeals must take into account the con- 
ditions of this case, and must determine, before ad- 
mitting an appeal, whether the possible results of 
the appeal would be practicable. For example, sup- 
pose the appellant, after locating, had remained 
a local preacher; or, suppose he had then joined 
another Church, could the Court of Appeals, in 
such a case, admit his appeal? By location, he had 
forfeited his right to appeal; for his right to an 
appeal lay in his being a Methodist traveling 
preacher. But the appellant had re-joined from lo- 
cation the Baltimore Conference. And supposing 
the appeal admitted, one of three things would 
happen: the action appealed from might be con- 
firmed, or reversed, or sent back for a new trial; 
and, in the latter case, if the case were sent back 
for a new trial, it would require the Oregon Con- 
ference to re-try a person who was not one of its 
members, but was in fact a member of another 
Conference. The court reversed the decision of 
the bishop, so sustaining my appeal. 

The General Conference of 1856 greatly en- 
larged the statistical tables. Up to that date the 
statistics of our Church were limited to five items 
as to members, four items as to the number and 
value of parsonages and collections for Bible and 



GENERAL CONFERENCE ACTION. 1 85 

Tract Societies, collections for Conference claim- 
ants and for the Missionary Society. 

In response to a resolution I offered, and which 
was referred to the Committee of Revisals, the 
General Conference of 1856 added the following 
questions of statistics, viz. : Number of deaths the 
past year ; number of probationers ; number of local 
preachers ; number of adults baptized the past year ; 
number of children baptized the past year. This 
Conference also provided for missionary bishops, 
limiting their jurisdiction to their mission fields, 
and providing that if they ceased to be missionary 
bishops, or should be removed from their field per- 
manently, they should fall back into the Annual 
Conference of which they had been members there- 
tofore. The Conference adjourned on the 8th of 
June. The following action, on motion of William 
Roberts, was had in reference to the representation 
of the Pacific Conferences in the General Mission 
Committee : 

Wh]Sre:as, The Conferences on the Pacific Coast 
are too far removed from the Atlantic States to allow 
of a personal representation in the General Mission 
Committee without involving great expense ; and 

WhkrDas, The domestic missionary work in these 
Conferences is constantly changing, and requiring 
modification in its general arrangement, and needs 
special representation in the said Missionary Com- 
mittee; therefore, 

Resolved, That, in the appointment of the Gen- 
eral Missionary Committee, the bishop be directed 
to constitute corresponding members of the said com- 



1 86 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

mittee for the Oregon and California Conferences, re- 
spectively, who shall have a corresponding relation to 
said committee, and shall he allowed to vote by proxy in 
its annual meetings, on all subjects relating to domestic 
missions on the Pacific Coast. 

In Oregon I made myself familiar with public 
affairs, and I criticised somewhat freely what I con- 
ceived to be deserving of reprehension. For ex- 
ample, the Legislature of Oregon had projected 
a Sunday law, which left the subject wide open. A 
coach and six could have driven right through it, 
because of the laches it contained. I made an ap- 
pointment to preach in Salem, the State capital, on 
a certain Sabbath evening, and to review the pro- 
posed Sunday law, which was then under consider- 
ation. I expressed myself very plainly and fear- 
lessly on the subject, and I compared the proposed 
Oregon Sunday law with Sunday laws in some of 
the older States. The result was, the Legislature 
was plied with petitions and protests on the sub- 
ject, until the law was amended, and Oregon took 
her place alongside of her sister States in a manner 
creditable to her good name as a young member 
of the United States of America. Hon. Delazon 
Smith, one of the first senators elected after the 
admission of Oregon, was a leading member of the 
Convention which presented the State Constitu- 
tion. He was from New York. I conferred with 
him upon the wisdom of giving Oregon ample size. 
Referring to New York and Rhode Island, he and 
I concluded that size and population will give a 
State more recognition and influence in the Re- 



LARGE STATES — SLAVERY IN OREGON. 1 87 

public than smaller dimensions and fewer people. 
We both agreed in this as to size; and as to the 
population we believed it would come in the course 
of time, and he reported in favor of the present 
dimensions of Oregon. It is about three hundred 
and thirty miles east and west, by two hundred and 
eighty north and south, containing 94,500 square 
miles. The population has climbed to three hun- 
dred and seventy-five thousand. All the Pacific 
States have followed the example of Oregon. Cali- 
fornia has 155,000 square miles; Washington, 78,- 
750 square miles; Idaho, 96,150 square miles; Mon- 
tana, 274,400 square miles; Wyoming, 217,600 
square miles; North Dakota has 100,000 square 
miles, and South Dakota 180,600 square miles. 
These States combined have an area of 1,275,600 
square miles, one-third the area of the entire Re- 
public. 

During the pendency of the State Constitution 
and the admission of Oregon into the sisterhood 
of the States of the Republic, I attended all the 
sessions of the State Constitutional Convention, 
and took down in shorthand the principal discus- 
sions and enactments of the Convention, freely dis- 
cussing in the columns of the Pacific Christian Ad- 
vocate the measures proposed. Among other 
things, the attempt was made to have a slave Con- 
stitution for Oregon ; a State the very soil of which 
was dedicated to freedom by a law of Congress. 
I vigorously opposed the movement. General 
Joseph Lane, our delegate in Congress, was stump- 
ing the State for re-election to Congress, and in his 



1 88 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

canvass he would put in arguments in favor of 
Oregon as a slave State. We defeated the slavery 
clause, scheduled for us to vote on, and defeated 
the pro-slavery measure by a majority of over three 
thousand votes, and the general's majority was cut 
down from five thousand majority to less than three 
thousand, as I now recall the result. 

Oregon and California were settled, in large 
measure, by immigrants from the slave States of 
Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, and 
Texas. Hence the effort to plant slavery upon the 
State; and hence, also, the expectation of the 
fomenters of the secession movement of i860 and 
1 861, that the Pacific States would join their for- 
tunes with the proposed Confederacy. We were 
aware of this expectation during the election cam- 
paign of Abraham Lincoln as a Republican candi- 
date, and the candidacy of Breckinridge and Lane 
of the ultra Southern wing of the Democratic party, 
and of Douglas and Stevens of the Free Soil wing 
of the Democratic party. It was probably because 
of this stand which I took in favor of the Free State 
party in Oregon, that I was sent as chairman of 
the delegation of Oregon in the Republican Na- 
tional Convention, which met at Baltimore in 
1864. The Convention met where the first blood of 
the War of the Rebellion was shed. When the busi- 
ness of the Convention was advanced enough. Rev. 
Dr. J. McKendree Riley made the opening prayer. 
It was deeply afifecting. He thanked the Lord 
that after four years of bloody war we were enabled 
to hold a National Convention in the city of Balti 



REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION. 1 89 

more. His tones were pathetic. The Convention 
stood during the prayer. Many of the members 
wept freely. One man in particular, of the Ohio 
delegation, which sat next behind us, could not 
refrain from sobbing and weeping violently. In 
the preliminaries of the Convention he had been 
very chatty, and withal quite too profuse in using 
profane words. After the prayer, and when the 
Convention was seated, some one challenged the 
sympathetic man who before had been so full of 
profanity, thus: "I did not know that you were so 

pious." "Well," said the other, "I do n't cry 

very much nor very often as a rule ; but that prayer 

was so good, it just drew the juice out of me 

in spite of everything." He rather sobbed this out 
than said it. It was a singular mixture of religious 
emotion and profanity. 

When the Convention was quite ready for its 
work, I arose to a question of privilege. I said: 
"It seems to me it should always be in order to bear 
good news to a body like this. Yesterday the State 
election in Oregon occurred. A telegram just re- 
ceived announces the fact that the election was a 
Union victory by a majority of five thousand. It 
is the first gun of the campaign. It shows that 'all 
is fair in the West.' " The news was received with 
vociferous cheering. 

After Mr. Lincoln was nominated, for the nomi- 
nation of Vice-President there was almost an even 
race between Senator Daniel S. Dickinson, of New 
York, and Andrew Johnson. Just before adjourn- 
ment the evening before, Parson Brownlow made 



igo SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

a speech, in which he named his old-time Demo- 
cratic opponent, Andrew Johnson. He suggested 
that the Convention should nominate him for the 
reasons: i. He is a true Union man; 2. It will en- 
hearten the Union men of the South; 3. It will 
make the rebels mad. Before the chair announced 
the result of the vote for Vice-President, I said to 
our delegation, who had voted for Schuyler Colfax, 
"If we change our vote to Johnson or to Dickinson, 
other States will fall into line, and the man we vote 
for will be nominated." After a brief moment, they 
said, 'Xet us vote for Johnson." I arose, and said, 
''Oregon changes her vote from Schuyler Colfax 
to Andrew Johnson." The example was conta- 
gious. In a few minutes Johnson was nominated. 
I was one of a committee to inform Mr. Lincoln, 
orally, of his renomination. He said in reply, that 
there was no lack of Presidential timber when the 
Convention met ; that there were a hundred men or 
more as well capable, and as deserving of the honor, 
as he; "but," said he, "I suppose the Convention 
was very much in the condition of the Irishman, 
who was crossing a swimming stream on a mare, 
with a colt following. The Irishman was unhorsed. 
He could not swim. The mare soon got out of his 
reach. He seized the tail of the colt. The load 
seemed too much for the colt. One on the. shore 
cried out to the man, 'Let go the colt and take the 
mare's tail,' to which the Irishman replied, 'Faith, 
sure, and this is no time to be afther shwapping 
horses when I 'm in the swim.' So," said Mr. Lin- 
coln, "the Convention probably felt that it was no 



ATTITUDE OF THE ADVOCATE. I9I 

time to be swapping Presidents when we were still 
in the midst of war." 

I have referred to the stand I took in favor of 
Oregon as a free State. When South Carolina 
seceded, and State after State was falling into Hne 
and swinging out of the Union, I took a very 
prominent and determined position in favor of the 
Union. There was a large number of persons who 
were opposed to coercion to retain States in the 
Union; others were in favor of the secession of 
States. The politicians were afraid to strike out 
for the Union. I took the ground that every true 
man and true patriot must stand by the Union, even 
if it came to war. I preached a sermon in Portland 
on the duty of Christian loyalty, from the words 
of Jesus, ''Render unto Caesar the things that are 
Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." 
An immense crowd heard it. The house was 
crowded, and hundreds could not get in ; but they 
thronged the doors and windows. One man, a * 
neighbor and an old man of seventy, climbed out 
over the back seat, and went out swearing that he 

would like to hang that black Republican to 

the first lamp-post. He had held Federal offices 
nearly all his lifetime. I made the Advocate ring 
out for the Union, and I took the stump in favor 
of the Union. The politicians recovered the use of 
their tongues when they saw the tide setting in for 
the flag and the Union. It was doubtless owing to 
my activity in this behalf that attention was turned 
to me as a proper person to be elected United 
States senator; and that induced the people to elect 



192 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

a majority in favor of my selection for that high 
office. It was a great blessing to me that the move- 
ment did not succeed. My life has been happier, 
and probably more useful, as a minister, than it 
could have been in another line. 

CONTRASTS. 

A beautiful prophecy in the seventy-second 
Psalm says: "There shall be a handful of corn in 
the earth upon the top of the mountains : the fruit 
thereof shall shake hke Lebanon: and they of the 
city shall flourish like grass of the earth." It is 
pleasant to see that the season of sowing and plant- 
ing in Oregon when I was there, has given place 
to the harvest. The handful of corn is beginning 
to shake like Lebanon. They of the cities are 
flourishing like the grass of the earth. The harvest 
measures of "thirty, sixty, and a hundred-fold" are 
being realized in that goodly field. The condition 
* of things in Oregon is represented in the highly- 
figurative words of Amos ix, 13: "Behold, the 
days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall 
overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes 
him that soweth seed." The figurative language 
of the Oriental Scriptures seems all too pale and 
weak to describe, adequately, the contrasts of the 
present days with those in which forty-five years 
ago I wrought for Jesus in the distant Occident. 

The population then was 13,294; now it is 
1,200,000. Then there was only one great Terri- 
tory; now there are eight populous, thrifty States. 
Then Methodism was small. There were, in 185 1, 



COMPARATIVE FIGURES. 



15 ministers; in 1897, 250; an increase of 1667 per 
cent. Churches and halls in 1851, 4 ; in 1897, 685 ; 
an increase of 17 126 per cent. Value of Church 
property in 1851, $3,000; in 1897, $2,061,185; an 
increase of 6875 per cent. Church members in 
1851, 750; in 1897, 40,098; an increase of 5346 
per cent. 

In 1 85 1, Oregon was a comparative solitude. 
It is now populous, having all the arts and ele- 
gancies of an advanced civilization. The exports 
of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho amount to 
$32,000,000. The agricultural, mineral, and tim- 
ber products of these three States amount to $40,- 
000,000. In those three States there are twelve 
hundred miles of railroad. 

It is something to have contributed to such 
stupendous material and spiritual results. A man 
who devoted the most vigorous and earnest years 
of his life to aid in bringing about such great har- 
vests of benefaction to man, and such revenues of 
glory to God, may imitate the self-congratulations 
of Paul,, that he has not run in vain, nor labored in 
vain, nor spent his strength for naught. Those 
material and statistical facts may be measured and 
tabulated. Humanity has no logarithms large 
enough to compute spiritual results. ''He who 
reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto 
life eternal." Who can fathom eternity? Who can 
compute the fadeless glory of the immortal state? 
13 



CHAPTER XV. 



ON April I, 1864, we started for the General 
Conference, which met that year in Philadel- 
phia. We went first to California ; thence by over- 
land stage we proceeded to the Missouri River, and 
from there by rail to Philadelphia, which was 
reached on the fifth day of the session. Readers 
will enjoy reading these hurried letters to the Pa- 
cific Christian Advocate, headings and dates just as 
they were published at the time : 

AN EDITOR'S JOTTINGS.— I. 

OcKAN Stkamship Pacific, April 5, 1864. 

Dbar Advocate, — By a good run, we reached 
Astoria a little after midnight of the 2d inst. At 
8 o'clock A. Al., crossed the bar, which was quite 
smooth. Before we had been out an hour, we encoun- 
tered a very severe southeaster. It was the most so 
of any the Captain had encountered during the last 
winter, and it lasted until Monday noon. This hin- 
dered us not a little. After being out some thirty 
hours from the bar, we had made less than a hun- 
dred miles. Has the reader ever been on shipboard 
during a gale at sea? If he has, he can appreciate 
our condition. The howling of the storm among the 
shrouds, and the rushing waves, how hungry they 
look! Waves before us; waves behind us; waves to 
right of us ; waves to left of us ; rushing, crashing, 
foaming, seething waves. Long waves and short 
waves, reguar and irregular; waves gentle and waves 
violent. '*They that go down to the sea in ships, 

194 



ON THE STEAMER. 



that do business in great waters, these see the works 
of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep." 

But that our good ship takes the sea well and 
has but a light cargo, our condition would be critical. 
But she rides the waves like a duck, and, in the teeth 
of a bitter head-gale, she makes progress. 

There are about tvvAcnty passengers in the cabin, 
and a like number forward. Captain Burns is an 
admirable seaman, watchful, capable, and attentive, 
and we feel that if disaster should befall us, it would 
be through no fault of his. 

The ship's officers and hands are well-trained and 
at their posts. The steward's department is in com- 
plete order, both as to quality of food, neatness, and 
attention. Many of the passengers are suffering much 
from sea-sickness ; but, as the storm has now abated, 
we shall soon see them convalescent. 

On board we have Mr. Pierson and family, and 
Mr. W. S. Hussey and family, all except Mr. Pierson 
on their way East. We hope to reach San Francisco 
to-morrow evening, when, if time^allows, I shall add 
something more to this brief line. 

River Steamer Yosemite, April 7, 1864. 

De:ar Advocate, — We arrived at San Francisco 
at 5.30 o'clock P. M. of yesterday. The flags at the 
forts and the Presidio were at half-mast on account 
of the death of Major Ringgold, paymaster United 
States army. San Francisco has grown almost be- 
yond my knowledge since 1859, when I last saw it. 
The North Beach has very much changed in five 
years, being now densely built up. But the principal 
change is in the southeastern part of the city, where 
palatial residences and fine churches, and schools and 
asylums, give evidence of solid, substantial improve- 
ment. Our stay in the city was so brief as to give 



196 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

little Opportunity for sight-seeing; but by the kind- 
ness of N. P. Perrine, formerly of Portland, I was 
enabled to see the different parts of this New York 
of the Pacific. Among other places, we, of course, 
visited the office of the California Christian Advocate 
and Alethodist Book Depository. Brother Thomas, 
the editor, and Brother McElroy, the agent, greeted 
us cordially. The depository is a success, and our 
California brethren are entitled to credit for their far- 
sightedness and enterprise. . 

''Mine host" of the International, Brother Wey- 
gant, is sharing a fair amount of patronage. His 
present hotel is much more commodious and con- 
venient than the Tremont House, which he formerly 
kept. 

Brother Blain, the pastor of the Howard Street 
charge, has erected a very fine church edifice, and is 
sharing a good degree of prosperity. His congre- 
gation is as large as that of any Protestant Church 
in the city, and a very interesting work of revival is 
in progress. ^ 

With Dr. Wyeth, pastor of the Powell Street 
Church, a pleasant acquaintance was formed. This 
church has been refitted and refurnished, and will be 
reopened next Sabbath for public worship. 

The Russ House, the Masonic Temple, and other 
stately piles of masonry, are monuments of the enter- 
prise and wealth of San Francisco. The work of re- 
covering the sunken Comanche is said to be nearly 
completed. It will be some time, however, before the 
ironclad will be ready for use as a means of defense 
for this port and city. A terrific storm has been rag- 
ing over the line of the telegraph, between this place 
and Salt Lake^ stopping all communication East. To- 
day it is resumed. 

Rev. Brethren Taylor and Lucas, from British 



AT STRAWBERRY, CALIFORNIA. 



197 



Columbia, are on their way East, the former over- 
land, and the latter by sea. I hope to overhaul 
Brother Taylor at Virginia City, and proceed in com- 
pany with him, East. 

The Yosemife, on board which I write this, is a 
beautiful boat. Our number of passengers is not 
large, perhaps a hundred in all. Among them is a 
man who is peddling a pamphlet purporting to be 
a heavenly dispatch by spiritual telegraph. It is a 
singular compound of Scripture, nonsense, and hum- 
buggery, and, from the way the peddler draws com- 
parisons and illustrations, there is little doubt that he 
will sell his book, whether the buyers get the worth 
of their money or not. 

I hope to be able to jot a brief line from Virginia 
City, and another from Brigham Young's country. Mr. 
Young, readers will observe, is described by Artemus 
Ward as "somewhat married." Till my next, adieu. 

AN EDITOR'S JOTTINGS.— II. 

Strawberry, Cai,,, April p, 186^. 

D^AR Advocate, — This is a singular, out-of-the- 
way place, and would never have figured in public 
had not the glittering treasures of Washoe tempted 
the cupidity of the great American people ; nor then, 
except that Strawberry lies in the direct path of travel 
to the silver-mines of Nevada Territory. There is 
hope for some places in Oregon from this view of the 
case. The silver and gold deposits of Idaho and 
Southern Oregon will equal, if they do not rival, those 
of Nevada, and who can tell what places, that had 
seemed doomed to "waste their sweetness on the desert 
air," shall come up into importance, and yet thrill 
with the pulsation of active, earnest business, pursued 
by theorizing multitudes? 



198 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

Our route from Sacramento was by rail to Folsom, 
twenty-two miles. Hence we came by Concord 
coaches to Placerville, twenty-seven miles. Three 
coaches, each drawn by six horses, were crowded with 
passengers, carrying, in all, some thirty persons. From 
Placerville to this place, forty-seven miles^ mud- 
wagons supersede the coaches, and the travel is 
slower, on account of the mud and the greater un- 
evenness of the road. 

California has put on her holiday attire. Ver- 
dure and beauty smile from every hillside and val- 
ley. The rains have come and gladdened the land, 
giving good promise of "seed to the sower and bread 
to the eater." Flour speculators who have counted 
on a drought in California, and a high price of bread- 
stuffs, may as well abandon their delusive hopes ; for 
the wheat-crop in California, while it may fall short 
of the usual yield, will yet be a fair one. 

We spent a pleasant evening with Rev. T. S. 
Dunn, from whom we learned that his Sunday-school 
numbered some one hundred scholars, his Church 
eighty members, and his ordinary congregation from 
two hundred and fifty to four hundred persons. The 
church edifice is large and eligibly situated. It is of 
brick, and has been costly. Unfortunately, a debt of 
seven thousand dollars presses the trustees. 

The mail is about to close, and this epistle must 
be abruptly ended. Of the route to Strawberry and 
Virginia City remark must be deferred until vixy next. 

Strawberry Vai.i.ey, April p, 1864. 

. . . My last, from this place, was quite too 
brief and desultory. In this it is proposed to speak 
more in detail. The route from Placerville to Straw- 
berry Valley is very mountainous, and the scenery 
of the grandest. We were twelve hours in making 



SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS. 



199 



it, the roads being much injured by the late storms. 
We are now within seven miles of the summit of the 
Sierra Nevada Mountains, and are six thousand seven 
hundred feet above the level of the sea. We pass, 
to-morrow morning, a rocky point some ten thou- 
sand feet above the sea-level. 

Among our passengers are Professor Whitney, 
well known as a geologist, and now engaged in 
making a survey of the State of California, as State 
geologist, and Professor King, of New York, also 
a geologist. I learn from the former that Mount 
Shasta is ascertained to be fourteen thousand four 
hundred and forty feet in height. It is claimed 
by some Californians that Shasta is higher than 
Mount Hood. If Shasta overtops her Oregon 
sister. Mount Hood is not as •high as has been 
supposed. We are in the midst of winter scenes. 
The snow on the summit is nearly six feet deep, owing 
to the recent heavy fall of snow. Had the ground 
been frozen when it fell, it is supposed the snow 
would have been ten feet deep. Sleighs are at the door 
to carry us eleven miles over the snow-belts ; the air 
without is sharp and bracing, and freezing; within, 
a blazing fire on the hearth reminds one of the good 
old New York winters. The hotel, kept by Crosby & 
Swift, is large and well furnished for the place, and 
yet they have not accommodations for their numer- 
ous guests. Last night there were over a hundred. 
To-night there are nearly as many. 

At four and a half o'clock to-morrow the stage 
leaves for Virginia City, which will be reached, it 
is expected, by a little after noon. 

The silver mines of Washoe are yielding more 
largely of late than usual, and the excitement is cor- 
respondingly increased. Numbers are rushing there 
from all parts of California. Many of them will re- 



200 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 



turn to their homes poorer and sadder than they 
were when leaving. Till you receive a line from Vir- 
ginia City, adieu. 

KDITORIAI. IvETTER— TRAVEIv ON THE PLAINS.— IIL 
Virginia City, N. T., April ii, 1864. 

Dear Advocate:, — This morning we are of¥ at 
six and a half o'clock for Reese River; but, before 
starting, a few moments are snatched to pen the in- 
cidents up to the present, and record such general 
facts and reflections as they may suggest. From 
Strawberry Valley to Virginia City the route passes 
over the summit of the Sierras, through the valley 
of Lake Tahoe, and thence over mountain ranges 
to Carson Valley.* Crossing the valley in a south- 
eastern direction, and traversing the foothills of the 
mountains skirting on the east, you ascend a spur 
of the loftiest peak. Mount Davidson, and pass, in 
succession, Silver City, Gold Mountain, and last, but 
not least, Virginia City, probably about the busiest 
place, according to its population, on the continent, 
if not in the world. 

The sleigh-ride was anything but pleasant. The 
snow was so deep and the road so poorly beaten that 
progress was slow and somewhat difficult. To add 
to our trouble, we were meeting or overtaking pack- 
trains and vehicles, and to get past them was no trivial 
matter, detaining us vexatiously. In one instance 
mula would not give road, and would not travel faster 
than a walk, and several passengers and the driver 
had, at last, literally to put him out of the way; but 
not until he had fallen with his heavy pack. In an- 
other, meeting a carriage with a family, all hands 
were compelled to take hold and lift the carriage out 
of the road, and afterwards, lift it back again. 



n 



TAHOE LAKE — CARSON RIVER. 20I 

The road through the valley of the lake, and 
from there to this point, is, nearly all the distance, 
graded, and is an excellent one, as may be inferred 
when it is stated that the drive over it is, in good 
weather, at the rate of from six to ten miles an hour. 
A good story is told of Horace Greeley in connection 
with this route. He suggested to Monk, the driver, 
that he wanted to be in Placerville at a given hour. 
Over the mountains, along dizzy slopes, where craggy 
peaks majestically frowned five hundred feet above 
the road, and frightful declivities yawned as many feet 
below% Monk drove his noble six-horse team in dash- 
ing, furious style, until the old philosopher became 
shghtly nervous, and he suggested to our Jehu not 
to drive so fast; that, if they should be a little late, 
he would rather be late than to run such hazards. 
Monk would whip up his horses afresh, and tell his 
agitated rider, "Hold on to your seat, Horace, and 
we shall get through all right." 

Tahoe is the Indian name for the lake along which 
we passed. It denotes clear water. The lake is 
nestled on the summit of the Sierras, and, in the 
morning sunbeams, surrounded by snowclad peaks, 
it glistened before us like a bright setting in a coronal 
of beauty. The lake is twenty-two miles long, by 
about eleven or twelve wide, and the water is almost 
transparently clear. Carson Valley, how shall it be 
described? Viewed from the heights adown which 
we drove to reach it, the absence of timber or ver- 
dure, and the jagged and ruptured mountains sur- 
rounding it, made it appear grand ; but it was the 
grandeur of desolation. It was awful. The Carson 
River is a small stream, fed by mountain lakes, 
and which evaporates some seventy-five or a htmdred 
miles below. The valley is in places from six to 
ten miles wide, and in others from half a mile to 



202 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

a mile. Its length is about seventy-five miles. A 
couple of miles from Carson City is a hot spring, and 
the penitentiary incloses it; whether to douse the re- 
fractory, or scour them from vice and vermin, does 
not appear. Virginia City, about a thousand feet 
above the valley, is six thousand two hundred feet 
above the sea-level. It lies southeast by northwest. 
Virginia City has sixteen thousand inhabitants, and 
numerous quartz-mills and various mining operations 
in this part of the country make these once dreary 
solitudes vocal with the songs of industry and the 
hum of business. The discoverer of these mines was 
a man named Finney, from Virginia, who went by 
the name of Old Virginia, and hence the name of 
the city. It is stated that he sold the Ophir or the 
Gould and Curry claim since, and now worth mil- 
lions, for a mustang pony and a bottle of whisky. He 
afterwards became the owner, by discovery, of the 
Gold Mountain mines, and, as he had fallen in debt 
for a winter's washing, he commuted his account with 
the washerwoman by giving her ten feet of his last 
found claim. This she retains, and it is said it could 
be cashed for ten thousand dollars a foot. Poor Old 
Virginia died comparatively poor and prematurely. 
He parted with his last claim, as he had the first, for 
a mere song, and lost his life by mounting a spiking 
pony, which threw him upon his head, inflicting a 
fatal wound. A jolly fellow, who had come into pos- 
session of fifty thousand or one hundred thousand 
dollars by the sale of "feet," went and had a long 
and heavy spree over his good fortune. He was a 
passenger with us from Placerville to Strawberry 
Valley, and, stepping from the stage while it was in 
motion, his head being unbalanced by his too free 
indulgence, he rolled down the mountain side some 
two hundred or three hundred feet, and brought up 



SILVER MINING. 



203 



against a tree, nearly butting his life out. Poor 
Charley ! the fate of Old Virginia seems to have little 
warning for him. 

Only five years have passed since these Washoe 
siver-mines were fairly discovered, and now they are 
adding many millions yearly to the bullion of the 
world. When these facts are considered, the silver- 
mines of Owyhee and Bannock and Santiam give 
promise of a brilliant and not distant future for our 
part of the world. 

Brother Anthony, the Methodist pastor here, has 
great prosperity. A spirit of revival prevails, and his 
people cordially and well sustain him. A tasteful, 
brick church edifice, worth some forty-five thousand 
dollars, contains a weekly congregation of from two 
hundred and fifty to four hundred. His membership, 
all included, is one hundred and fifty. A funded 
debt of twelve thousand dollars rests upon the prop- 
erty, the interest upon which is paid from the rent 
of pews. The writer preached last evening to a large 
and attentive audience. Of¥ now for Salt Lake, from 
which place another line may be expected. 

AN EDITOR'S JOURNEYINGS.— IV. 

Great Sai,t Lake City, U. T., April 16, 1864. 

Dear Advocate, — At the risk of being tedious 
and repetitious, attention is again called to the silver- 
mining operations in this part of the world. Silver 
ledges have been 'discovered in the vicinity of Vir- 
ginia City, and also on Reese River one hundred 
and eighty miles east, on the Humboldt, and even in 
the mountain ranges which border on Utah Territory. 
To-day I examined specimens of silver and lead ore 
taken from mines only twenty miles from this city. 

During my stay in Virginia City I visited the far- 



204 SIXTY- OXE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

famed Gould and Curry mines and their silver mill- 
ing works. Entering by a shaft at the top, a descent 
of four hundred feet was made, and the various tun- 
nels, penetrating the mountain seven hundred feet, 
were traversed. As fast as excavations are made, 
solid frameworks are constructed to support the pres- 
sure of the earth from above. 

The milling works of the company are of the finest. 
They cost about one million dollars. The engine 
they now have, and which drives their machinery, is 
of one hundred and fifty horse-power. Another is 
being erected, the present one being unequal to their 
demand. The new one is to be of two hundred and 
sixty horse-power. This mill has a battery of forty 
stamps, and runs five large and five smaller amalga- 
mators, besides grinding their quartz preparatory to 
amalgamation. By the kindness of Mr. Frank Parke, 
the superintendent of the amalgamation and refining 
departments, the whole process of reducing the ore 
to bullion was explained, and it is here repeated, for 
the information of those curious in such matters. 

The quartz is first subjected to the action of bat- 
teries of stamps, which pulverize it fine. It is then 
mixed with certain proportions of common salt, cop- 
peras, and blue vitriol and quicksilver. When thor- 
oughly amalgamated, the sand is sluiced ofif, and the 
amalgam is then subjected to pressure, to strain off 
the quicksilver, and the remaining quicksilver is sep- 
arated from the mass by retorting. 

The metal, including gold ancl silver, is melted 
down into bricks, assayed and stamped, and sent to 
England to be again refined and the gold separated 
from the silver, our people not having yet acquired the 
art of this last process. When it is remembered that 
the silver-mines and mills already working yield some 
two million dollars a n.ionth, and that new discover- 



DESERT PRODUCTIONS. 



205 



ies are constantly being made, this branch of enter- 
prise, it is seen, will become increasingly important. 

Our route from Virginia City to this place pre- 
sented a field of observation and thought wholly new. 
Mountains, valleys, and plains are the order of suc- 
cessive days of travel, with the invariable accompani- 
ment of sage, prickly pear, and alkali-beds. 

Large fields of common salt are being discovered, 
which must be of exceeding value in this remote 
inland country. There is an almost total absence of 
timber, except sage-brush and a variety of stunted 
cedar. Water, too, is very scarce, and the Overland 
Mail Company have to transport water a distance of 
twenty or thirty miles. Carson, Truckee, Reese, and 
Humboldt Rivers, receiving the melted snows of the 
Sierras, bear them down the desert only a few miles, 
when they are evaporated, and the riv.er bed is dry. 

It must not be omitted to speak of the total absence 
of animal life. For six hundred miles, only one 
prairie-hen, one hare, and a few ravens were seen. 
Unbroken silence wraps the desert in profound gloom. 
Fort Crittenden, the last point of importance passed 
before reaching Salt Lake, is distant from this city 
forty miles. Here, as at Austin, on Reese River, the 
buildings are of adobes, a sun-dried brick, which, as 
it seldom rains here, answer a good purpose. Gen- 
eral Johnston caused some two hundred or three hun- 
dred of these to be erected here while quartered in 
Utah. 

The prospect of reaching Philadelphia by the open- 
ing of Conference is clouded by two facts : first, the 
prevalence of an unusual snowstorm in the moun- 
tains, blockading the roads ; and secondly, the news 
which reaches us by telegraph, of a brush between 
the Cheyennes and the Colorado troops on the stage 
road, eighty miles east from Denver. But I hope, in 



2o6 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

spite of these difficulties, to reach the Conference dur-- 
ing its first week. Of Salt Lake, notice will be made 
in my next. 

The following telegram, from the editor to his 
wife^ has been received since our last : 

Atchison, K. T., May 2, 1864. 

"Delayed — weary — well. In Philadelphia, Thurs- 
day. No interruption from Indians." 

AN EDITOR IN THE DESERT.— V. 

Rock Point, 220 Mii.es East ) 
Great Saxt I^ake, April 20, 1864. \ 

Utah Territory embraces many features which 
have interest for the public. Our route from Austin 
to Great Salt Lake lay through an unpeopled soli- 
tude, the path being literally strewed with the car- 
casses of animals, and lined with the graves of emi- 
grants. Of course we saw nothing of the southern 
part of the Territory, which is said to be fertile and 
considerably settled by Mormons. From the oppor- 
tunities I had of observing Mormonism — and they 
were rather limited — the conclusion is reached that, 
in point of political economy, it is a failure. The 
lands susceptible of husbandry are not well tilled, and, 
while many of the people may be industrious and 
some of them thrifty, they are generally poor, squalid, 
ignorant, and degraded. They consist, in large part, 
of foreigners: English, Welsh, Scotch, Norwegians, 
and Danes. The polygamy does not tend to social 
order and comfort, but the reverse. At one place 
where we stopped, the landlord has two wives, who 
have not spoken to each other since the second wife 
was installed. They live in separate houses, within 
a stone's-throw of each other ; and if they do not throw 



MORMONISM— MORMON CHILDREN. 207 

stones at one another, there is no more intercourse 
between them than between a Turk and a Christian. 
The husband spends a week with one, and then a week 
with the other. In another place where we dined, 
the Mormon bishop, our host, has three wives, 
sisters, and New Hampshire women. They did not 
appear happy. The children of this arrangement are 
far from being as comely, smart, and intelhgent-ap- 
pearing as those outside of Mormondom. You find 
no books in the Mormon houses I entered, except 
yellow-covered literature, which the female inmates 
of these houses spend their time in reading. I cate- 
chised the children two or three times, and they were 
nearly as ignorant as horseblocks, and as stupid as 
unwashed papooses. It may, perhaps, be supposed 
that the writer is prejudiced, and that^ therefore, his 
statements should be abated somewhat. Let it be 
observed that he states only what he saw and what 
he gathered from those who claimed to be informed, 
and who appeared to be truthful. 

The population of Utah Territory is variously es- 
timated at from sixty thousand to eighty thousand, 
and even one hundred thousand. The latter is the 
figure claimed by the Mormons. The first is probably 
nearest the truth. The capital was located, some years 
since, at Fillmore, one hundred and fifty miles south 
from Salt Lake City; but the Legislature, from year 
to year, persists in adjourning to Great Salt Lake 
City. 

Governor Doty being absent from the Territory, 
the secretary of the Territory, Mr. Reed, is acting 
governor in his stead. We formed a pleasant ac- 
quaintance with him. 

Great Salt Lake City lies on a declivity on the 
eastern slope of the valley, and about two miles east 
from the Great Salt Lake. The population is esti- 



2o8 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

mated at from eight thousand to twelve thousand. 
The houses are mostly built of adobe, or sun-dried 
bricks ; they are small, unpainted, and with earthen 
floors, usually covered with ducking or buffalo robes. 
The streets are regularly laid out, and irrigated by 
streams running along between the sidewalks and 
roadways. 

Take out the theater, the State-house, and a few 
other public buildings, Brigham Young's, and a few 
other private residences, the buildings of this city are 
small, unsightly, and uninviting. 

Brigham Young's residence, tithing-house, and 
family schoolhouse, are inclosed within strong stone 
walls, some ten feet high, and the entrances are 
guarded by an armed sentinel. We did not see Mr. 
Young, but we learned that he is sixty-three years of 
age and in good preservation. His food is plain and his 
habits are regular. He eschews intemperance in the 
use of intoxicating liquors, and is evidently desirous 
of living as long as he may. 

We inspected the foundations of the great Mormon 
temple, begun some eight or nine years ago, but not 
yet raised above the level of the ground aroimd them. 
They are built of granite, the blocks being from three 
to four or six feet by a foot thick. The walls are 
about nine feet thick and twelve feet high. Under 
each basement window and doorway are inverted 
arches, and between the windows are erect arches. 
At the two east corners are circular cisterns about 
twelve feet in diameter by an equal depth. They are 
probably baptismal fonts. The building is about 
eighty by one hundred feet. We did not measure it. 
It will never be finished. Mormonism can not sur- 
vive. Already it contains the elements of its own de- 
struction. Faction and strife are at work, and, at 
Brigham's death, if not before, the whole system will 



GREAT SALT LAKE DESERT. 20g 

be whelmed in a common overthrow. It is a singular 
and significant fact that many of the children of Mor- 
mon parents are heartily disgusted with Mormonism, 
and repudiate its sensual, polygamous institutions. 

We recommend the American Bible Society to 
scatter the word of God among the people, and Chris- 
tian Churches to send missionaries there, and soon 
Utah shall be redeemed. The Great Salt Lake is a 
beautiful sheet of water, one hundred and thirty miles 
long by from thirty to fifty wide. It is fed by the 
Weber and Bear Rivers, and by other less consider- 
able streams. It is said to have no outlet. The val- 
ley of the Weber is fertile and well cultivated. Echo 
Cafion, through which we pass after leaving the 
Weber, is about twenty miles long by from half a mile 
to a mile and a half wide. Here, in 1857, the Mor- 
mons fortified against the forces of Uncle Sam. The 
ruins of their works are yet apparent. Camp Doug- 
las is the military post, now occupied by General Con- 
ner and some two regiments of United States troops. 
It is about three miles from Salt Lake City. Our 
progress eastward is slow, of which — more anon. 

BDlTORIAIy CORRBSPONDBNCB.— V 

Atchison, Kansas, May 2, 1864. 

De:ar Advocate, — The trip to this place from 
Salt Lake would have been a most pleasant one but 
for two or three drawbacks which greatly mar it. 
A full load of passengers — i. e., three on a seat, mak- 
ing nine in all — may do for a few miles, or a few 
score of them, but when this press is kept up for 
one thousand one hundred and fifty miles, it becomes 
anything but pleasant. When, to this, are added 
various less discomforts, the journey hither by stage 
becomes decidedly tedious. If the eastern part of 



2IO SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

this line were as well constructed and as thoroughly 
worked as the western, the overland trip would be 
but an agreeable recreation. But justice to truth com- 
pels me to show a different phase of the subject. The 
stage-line from Salt Lake to the Missouri is badly 
managed. The stock is poor and slow ; many of the 
drivers are cross and insolent; the stages (mud 
wagons) are contracted and inconvenient; the con- 
nections are not well made, and mails and passengers 
are laid over without so much as saying, *'By your 
leave, sir." Such, at least, was our experience. At 
Weber River we were detained three hours ; at Green 
River, twelve ; at Rock Point, twenty-four ; at Sulphur 
Springs, eighteen or twenty; and at Fort Halleck, 
fourteen hours. The reason alleged was that the 
crowd of passengers from the East, and a severe snow- 
storm which occurred about the first of April, had 
deranged the plans of the agents, and had rendered 
it impracticable to put us forward in schedule time. 
We, however, failed to see the force of the argument ; 
for when we wxre laid over, there were animals to 
take us, and^ the roads and weather were favorable. 
Only for about seventy miles of the entire route were 
the roads in bad condition. In the Park, some fifteen 
miles east of Salt Lake, and along the Bitter Water 
Creek and over Bridger's Pass, the roads were heavy 
from the melting of the snows. In the pass we rode 
over drifts that were from four to six feet deep. The 
fare along the line is rather coarse and ordinary than 
otherwise. It consists of fried bacon and saleratus 
biscuit and some indifferent coffee, served up in not 
the most neat and inviting manner. The price for 
such a meal was usually one dollar. Along toward the 
Missouri seventy-five cents is charged, and, as you 
enter Nebraska and Kansas, the food improves in 
neatness, variety, and wholesomeness. 



NEBRASKA — KANSAS— A TCHISON. 2 1 1 

So far we have traversed three States and five 
Territories. The general description which was given 
of the mines and mining interests of Nevada will an- 
swer tolerably of Colorado, with this difference : Colo- 
rado is a gold-quartz mining country, the climate is 
more rigorous, and the water is both more abundant 
and wholesome. 

Nebraska is a level, cold country, with a light 
soil, comparatively little timber, and evidently not well 
adapted to agriculture, owing to its altitude and want 
of strength of soil. Grass, however, does well, and 
it is probably adapted to grazing purposes. The por- 
tion of Idaho through wdiich we passed is much the 
same in its general features as Nebraska. 

Kansas is a rolling, open country, with little timber 
except along the streams. The swells are not high, but 
they stretch out in length like long sea-waves. The 
soil is of the best, especially along the Kansas River. 
The timber is mostly black-walnut, hickory, cotton- 
wood, and oak. Kansas is poorly farmed. The lack 
of thorough husbandry is quite evident to the passing 
traveler. The population is estimated at from one 
hundred thousand to one hundred and twenty-five 
thousand. The people of the State are loyal, and 
they have given good proof of the same by furnish- 
ing sixteen white regiments, and quite three colored 
ones, to defend the endangered nationality and sup- 
press the existing rebellion. 

Atchison is a thriving town of about three or four 
thousand resident population. Its chief interest lies 
in its being the starting point of travel and commerce 
across the desert. Outfits are here made, and hence 
depart the emigrants and stage passengers for Colo- 
rado, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, and 
Washington. This year the emigration westward is 
much larger than ever before. Some arc drawn 



212 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

thitherward by the hire of gold, some by the love of 
adventiire, some by a restless tendency which is 
chronic among many of the American people, and 
still others by a desire to escape the draft and evade 
the consequences of the rebellion in which they have 
participated. But whatever may be the cause, there 
can be no doubt that the emigration across the plains 
this year is immense. The whole of our route from 
Salt Lake was made lively by the caravans constantly 
met. Not a day passed in which we did not meet 
from thirty to two hundred wagons, and we were told 
that the tide of travel, by the way of Omaha and 
other points, is little, if any, less than by this route 
Most of the emigrants are going to East Bannock 
and Boise, Idaho. 

After reviewing the advantages and disadvantages 
of the several countries through which we passed, 
we give the preference to Oregon over any of them. 
Our climate, scenery, water, agricultural and mineral 
resources, and our commercial prospects, place Ore- 
gon far in advance of her sister Territories and States. 

From the best information we could gather, the 
conclusion is reluctantly reached that large numbers 
of the present year's emigration are Copperheads and 
Rebel sympathizers. 

I shall be three days behind time in reaching the 
General Conference; but not through any fault or 
mismanagement of mine. I started early enough to 
have reached Philadelphia in season, had not buffet- 
ing winds and waves, and the mis-arrangements of 
those whose actions I could not control, prevented. 
A letter may next be expected from Philadelphia. 

The preceding letters, giving account of my 
stage journey across the Plains, leave some things 
unsaid which should be of record. One of these 



MASSACRE OF STAGE PASSENGERS. 213 

is an account of peril and escape and heroism that 
our ordinary Hfe does not furnish. I learned of this 
in Oregon; for I have seen the lady and her chil- 
dren, -who escaped soon after her awful experience. 
Then, also, I learned it on the Plains from the 
driver, who, when I was present, was driving on the 
same route where these things occurred ; but not on 
this occasion. 

A driver, two male passengers — one of them the 
husband of a lady and the father of her two chil- 
dren — were present in the stage. As the stage 
was ascending a narrow caiion, one of the wheel 
horses was shot. The driver whipped up his team, 
when he was shot in the breast and his left arm 
broken. He gave the lines over to the passenger 
sitting on the boot with him, and plied his horses 
with the whip in his right hand. The new driver 
was shot in the breast, and fell from the stage into 
the road, the wounded driver seizing the lines. 
Then the woman's husband, on request of the 
driver, crawled out through the stage window, and 
took the Hues. Soon the husband was shot, and 
he fell into the boot. Then the driver called on 
the woman to come out and drive. The children 
were left in the bottom of the stage, and the mother 
made her way to the boot and took the reins. The 
Indians were distanced. The stage arrived at the 
station ; but in what a plight ! The wounded horse 
fell dead, the driver was dead, her husband was 
dead, and only she and her two children were liv- 
ing. The station was burned. No one was about. 
Just then the stage came up from the opposite di- 



214 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

rection. The woman and her children were taken 
in. The stage returned on the route it came. The 
mother and children were saved. She was a young 
woman, not over thirty years. 

Our passengers were becoming very uneasy. 
We were in a section infested by bad Indians. It 
was in the vicinity of the tragedy just recited. The 
stage we should have met was ten hours late. Our 
five-mule team — two on the wheel, and three in the 
lead — were slowly and wearily making their way 
through heavy sand. We saw a cloud of dust a 
couple of miles to the right of our road. The driver 
seemed excited when he saw it. As if talking to 
himself, he said : "If that proves to be Indians, and 
they come to us, I will cramp this trap and the 
king-bolt will drop out. I will jump on the front 
axle and yell at the mules, and they will pull me 
out of it." "What do you think I '11 be doing when 
that happens?" I said. "What will you be doing?" 
I an*swered, "I '11 be putting daylight through you." 
The passengers inside heard the chat, and they re- 
sponded, "We will put some more daylight through 
him." Fortunately, the alarm was unfounded. We 
soon met the westward bound stage. Our anxieties 
passed away. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



I DEVOTE this chapter to adventures with In- 
dians and wild animals. Some of the incidents 
I personally witnessed and participated in. The 
others I can avouch as true. They will at least 
amuse, and perhaps instruct, some of my young 
readers. 

When I first went to Oregon in 1851, it was 
sparsely settled. The white population in 1850 
was a little above thirteen thousand. These were 
widely scattered through the Wallamet Valley, 
now called Willamette, and through the Umpqua 
and Rogue River Valleys. The Donation Land 
Law gave to every single man a half-section of 
land, and if a married man, a full section of land. 
This induced a scattered population. 

Oregon abounded with game and with wild 
animals. In traveling over the country I frequently 
came upon bands of deer who were comparatively 
fearless, and who would remain grazing even after 
they had seen me. I once encountered a cougar, 
called also the ounce and the American lion. It 
was only two miles from Salem, the capital of the 
Territory. He was crossing a trail or cow-path, 
on which I was ascending a gentle acclivity. It 
was in an oak opening, covered with grass. He 
was not more than two or three rods above me 
when he crossed my path. After proceeding a few 

yards he stopped. I had never seen a cougar 

215 



2l6 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

before, and I did not know what animal he w^as. I 
advanced upon him, and swung my lariat as if about 
to noose him. He refused to move. His head was 
down to the ground. His teeth were displayed. 
His eyes turned green, and glared intensely. He 
spit, growled, and whisked his tail furiously, as 
though intending to spring upon me. Fixing my 
eye sharply on him, I turned my horse obliquely 
and rode away, perhaps a half a quarter of a mile. 
Then I stopped and looked at him. He was still 
crouched where I left him, and vigorously slashing 
his tail. He was apparently about four or five feet 
long, and of a brindle-brown color. He looked 
like a giant cat. My feehngs in that encounter with 
the cougar can be better imagined than described. 
I sweat profusely, and my hair seemed as stiff as a 
quill. I presume I turned pale ; for I was very much 
excited, and probably not a little bit afraid. 

I was stopping with a friend. He came in one 
morning, and said he had lost a fine, large, three- 
months' old colt by a cougar. The animal had 
seized the colt by the withers, carried it bodily 
across a meadov^, jumped a high rail-fence with the 
colt in his jaws, and cached it in a hollow place in 
the woods, covering it over with leaves. Mr. 

W and I found the dead colt. He cut off a 

hind-quarter, put some strychnine into it, and hung 
it to the limb of a tree about two or three rods away 
from the cache. The cougar, in returning from a 
cache, makes a wide circle, and then reduces it in 
his encircling rounds until within jumping distance, 
and then he jumps upon his dead prey. This he 



A grizzly's tracks — MUCH TERRIFIED. 217 

did in the present instance, and so encountered the 
bait, which he seized and devoured. We found 
him the next morning, dead. He was eight feet six 
inches long from his nose to the tip of his tail. We 
secured the hide, which, in some measure, com- 
pensated for the loss of the colt. It is not strange 
that brave men will dread, and if possible avoid, a 
passage at arms with one of these huge monsters. 

A great fright came to me from simply seeing 
the fresh tracks of a grizzly bear. I was riding in 
the Upper Willamette Valley. I lay off at noon 
to stop at a friend's house and spend the afternoon 
and night with him. He proposed a deer-hunt. 
We went down into a large island in the Willamette 
River, each bearing a rifle. On the sandy shore of 
the island I saw the fresh tracks of a grizzly. They 
were large; say, fifteen inches long and seven or 
eight inches wide. The bear had been clawing in 
the sand for a mouse-nest or a mole's-nest. His 
claws made tracks as large as my fingers. The trees 
were large, and the undergrowth was dense. The 
size of the trees made climbing to escape from 
grizzlies impossible. The undergrowth afforded 
concealment for the bears, and rendered surprises 
easy. I was terrified, and immediately told my 
friend I would not hunt deer in that island. My 
friend insisted on a further hunt. We soon entered 
an open. I saw a small herd of deer. Taking aim 
for them, my rifle shook. My companion said: 
''Do n't shoot ; your piece is unsteady, and you will 
miss." He shot one of the deer, and we returned 
with our game. The fear was occasioned by my 



2l8 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

knowledge of the habits of the grizzly, and of the 
helplessness of man in an encounter with the wild 
beast. 

John Rexford and his two manly sons were 
noted grizzly bear hunters. On one occasion 
John's brother William, a Baptist minister, and 
therefore not much of a hunter, was visiting at 
John's. All were at dinner, when they heard the 
hounds baying the game. Looking out, they saw 
the dogs chasing a she-grizzly with her cubs. The 
bear and cubs, with dogs in pursuit, were making 
for the Calapooya River, perhaps for the better 
chance it would give the bear and her cubs to es- 
cape. Each of the four Rexfords seized a rifle, and 
joined in the chase. Reaching the river bottom, 
they saw Mrs. Bruin sitting on her haunches in a 
thicket of vine maples, with her cubs behind her. 
She was held in this position by the active dogs. 
On the way from the house, William had requested 
of his brother John that he might have the first 
shot, as he had never killed a grizzly. His brother 
had consented, and he said to William, "Blaze 
away, Bill; that is a fine mark." William raised his 
gun to take aim. The moment he did so, Bruin, 
with open mouth, moved towards him, coming so 
near him that she had nearly reached the muzzle 
of his gun. Instead of shooting, William was petri- 
fied with fear. He bawled out a strange, unearthly 
yell, and fell to the ground, fainting dead away. 
The bear, seeing the man fall and hearing his out- 
cry, left him and went back to her position as be- 
fore. John put a bullet in the bear's heart, and she 



GRIZZLY BEAR ADVENTURE, 



219 



died in a few moments. William had now recov- 
ered from his swoon, and, seeing the bear dead, he 
said, '1 killed him, did I not?" "I shot him," said 
John. "No," said William, "it was L" "Look at 
your rifle," said John. The hammer of the trigger 
had not been pulled. 

In the early days of Oregon grizzly bears 
abounded. They grew to an immense size and 
weight. Some of them weighed a thousand pounds 
or more. They had enormous strength. They 
could travel very fast, outstripping the fleetest hu- 
ma^n runners. They never hesitated to attack a 
man, and especially if surprised or cornered. They 
fought with amazing fierceness and destructiveness. 
They have great tenacity of life. It is said they will 
live on and fight even after their heart has been 
pierced with a bullet. 

A man, in passing through a thicket where he 
had to stoop in going through, fell over a log upon 
the prostrate body of a sleeping grizzly. As though 
he would compel respect for his gigantic strength 
and resent his rude awakening, Bruin at once ad- 
dressed himself to the work of doing up that un- 
fortunate visitor, and divesting him of his clothing 
and flesh. With his mighty claws he tore off his 
clothes. With his grim, steel-trap jaws, he chewed 
up his cheeks and limbs, gnawing the quivering 
flesh from the bones. He ripped off the skin and 
flesh from the man's arms and limbs and body, 
and left it hanging in shreds. And as if to make 
his work more complete and deadly, he hugged his 
victim with a strong, warm embrace, and squeezed 



220 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. . 

the breath from the body, and then cuffed and 
slapped his helpless adversary. When the bear's 
work with that man was over, he needed recon- 
struction. It seems strange to say, and yet the 
truth requires that it be said, that man, so lacerated 
and chewed up, and so incontinently torn up and 
wounded and mangled and bleeding, actually re- 
covered from his injuries, although there was hardly 
a spot about him or on him as large as one's hand 
which was not torn or bruised. 

I will give an account of a fatal encounter a 
famous hunter had with grizzlies. A great wolf- 
hunter in Southern Oregon made his living and 
supported his large family by hunting wolves, and 
obtaining the bounties which the State gave for 
wolves' scalps. He and his hounds never failed to 
attack any wild beast which came in their v\^ay, no 
matter how ferocious or dangerous such animal 
might be. One day his hounds stalled a he-grizzly 
with his two she-bears in company. The hunter 
shot the he-grizzly, breaking one of his hind legs. 
The bear made for him. The brave man held his 
rifle in his teeth, and climbed a small tree ; but not 
until the grizzly had torn off one of his boots, and 
laid open the calf of his leg to the bone. The 
hunter dropped his rifle; but made his escape into 
the tree. The bear went off a short distance, and 
watched him. He set the dogs on the bear. While 
the dogs were baying the bear, the hunter slipped 
down the tree and began reloading his rifle, which 
he had recovered. The bear saw him within reach, 
and made for him. They fought. The hunter was 



A DUEL TO THE DEATH — INDIAN WAR. 221 

clubbing his bearship with his rifle. The bear 
knocked his rifle out of the hunter's hands and 
reach, and embraced him. The hunter drew a 
hunting-knife from his belt, and began stabbing; 
the bear. The bear knocked the knife from his 
hand. The hunter reached around for a second 
knife he carried, which was in a socket on his boot- 
leg. He used this weapon vigorously, driving it 
into the bear's body. The bear tore out one of the 
hunter's eyes, and laid open his breast. The hunter 
continued his work with the knife until the savage 
monster fell over in death. The hunter made his 
way to a cabin near by, called for a drink of water, 
and died. The combat was fatal to both con- 
tenders. 

If the Indians were savage and bloodthirsty in 
their mode of warfare, they have had dreadful 
provocation. I saw a white man, who was sober, 
jump on a drunken Indian, and so injure him that 
he died in two days afterward. 

Peo-Peo-mox-a-mox, or Yellow Serpent, a chief 
of the Walla Walla Indians, had an only son, who 
went on a mining expedition for gold to California. 
He was shot down in cold blood. The old chief 
never forgave that offense. He was a bitter fighter. 
H^e was captured, and put under guard. It is al- 
leged he was trying to escape. He was shot and 
killed. Hence when the war broke out, some of 
the whites who fell earliest in the war where hor- 
ribly mutilated. 

A stretch of country in Southern Oregon, in- 
cluded in Rogue River and Umpqua Valleys, and 



222 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

extending for thirty miles, thinly settled, was raided 
by the Indians. Some of the settlers had gone into 
a stockade fort for greater safety. Others, who had 
not found such a shelter were killed. A man named 
Harris, and living two miles from the nearest neigh - 
bor's, was assailed in his cabin by a band of In- 
dians. It was near night. The family consisted of 
a man, his wife, and a daughter of ten years. The 
Indians fired upon the house. Mr. Harris, who had 
two rifles and a good supply of ammunition, re- 
turned the fire. When he was firing one of these 
guns, his wife was reloading the other. He fired on 
his savage enemies through the space between the ^ 
logs of his cabin. At length he received a fatal 
wound, and very soon expired. He told his wife 
to keep on firing until the ammunition was all 
spent, or nearly so, and then to shoot her daughter 
and herself, for it was worse than death to be cap- 
tured by the Indians. Mrs. Harris took his place, 
the daughter reloading her pieces as fast as neces- 
sary. This action was kept up for some time, and 
she found her ammunition was nearly gone. 

Thus it continued until the twilight deepened 
into night. Then a small body of white horsemen 
came riding rapidly by. The Indians retired. 
When the firing ceased, she and her daughter fled 
into the adjoining forest. The Indians returned 
to their assault. Their shots remained unanswered. 
They fired the house, and in the light of the burn- 
ing cabin they scoured the surrounding w^oods, 
several times approaching very closely the con- 
cealed fugitives. When the Indians retired, they 



INDIAN ATROCITIES — THE MODOC WAR. 223 



Spent the night in their hiding. The next day they 
were rescued by a party of white settlers. Mrs. 
Harris received from Congress a medal and the gift 
of a mile square of land for her heroism. 

In a later Indian war the Indians occupied a 
very strong retreat among the lava-beds of an 
ancient volcano. The troops could get into the 
vicinity of their Indian foes, but they could not find 
their places of concealment. At length Captain 
Jack proposed a treaty at a point agreed upon. 
General Canby, of the regular army; Mr. Dyer, of 
the Indian service ; Rev. Dr. Thomas, of San Fran- 
cisco, and perhaps others, repaired to the place. The 
Indians slaughtered them in cold blood, except Mr. 
Dyer and one or two others, who escaped. The 
chief leader in this horrible massacre was brought 
up among the whites. I knew him well. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



IT is not generally known that Oregon was in 
some danger of becoming a slave State. A large 
majority of the earlier emigrants to Oregon came 
from slave States, chietiy from Missouri, Arkansas, 
Texas, Tennessee, and Kentucky. There was a 
strong determination on the part of the Southern 
politicians, who were eager to extend the area of 
slavery in the United States, to induce Oregon, 
when she should assume Statehood, to become a 
slave State. 

When General Joseph Lane, the delegate in 
Congress from Oregon Territory, ran in 1856 for 
re-election, he could count on a Democratic ma- 
jority in Oregon of five thousand. In canvassing 
for his re-election, he sought to persuade his Demo- 
cratic supporters to vote also for slavery in Oregon. 
In his former election I voted for him, because 
under the conditions I believed he could help Ore- 
gon more than his opponent could. During his 
canvass for re-election, he again solicited my vote. 
I told him I had heard that, in canvassing for his 
re-election, he spoke one word for his re-election 
and two in favor of Oregon's becoming a slave 
State. If that rumor w^as true, I said, I would not 
only not vote for him, but I would also do all I 
could against his re-election to Congress. I took 
the field in favor of Oregon as a free State. Gen- 



A GIT A TION— CONTENTION. 



225 



eral Lane's majority was cut down from five thou- 
sand to three thousand. The slave State schedule 
was defeated by over three thousand. 

I made the Pacific Christian Advocate an earnest 
supporter of Oregon as a free State, and I also can- 
vassed in the Willamette Valley in favor of free 
Oregon. As may well be supposed, I encountered 
opposition, and my course as an editor subjected 
me to the misrepresentations and abuse of the ad- 
vocates of the slaveocracy. I was a target for the 
shafts of ridicule and falsehood by some of the 
Democratic papers in Oregon and CaHfornia. The 
following article, which was printed in the Pacific 
Christian Advocate in the fall of 1859, ^^'^^^ show the 
kind of conflict through which I passed, and 
through which I carried my paper. It appeared 
during the pendency of the slave State question in 
Oregon : 

THE PROOF. 

"In Favor oi^ Slavery. — The Standard, of the 19th inst., 
contains a long letter of Joseph C. Lovejoy in favor of 
slavery. It is addressed to his brother, a member of Con- 
gress; and while it is written with evident ability, it goes 
the whole figure for slavery." 

The above extract we transcribe from the last issue of 
the Advocate. The man who wrote the same, if it may be 
taken as his real opinion given after reading the article, 
should be classed with that other Solomon in ordinary to 
some Siwash tribe, who, in the plenitude of his wisdom, ex- 
claimed, "O, how good was Nature that placed great rivers 
near great towns!" 

If, on the other hand, he intended to mislead, then while 
such writing is admitted to its columns, the Advocate should 
drop the prefix Christian, and substitute the word Heathen. 

We thus speak, because on the 14th inst., four days 
15 



226 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



previous to its publication in the Standard, the letter re- 
ferred to was published in this paper, and now, for the ben- 
efit of the author of the lying paragraph which is quoted 
above, we will continue to quote from the Fool's Experience: 

"Page: He that 's first a hypocrite, and next a knave, the 
year after is either an arrant fool or a madman. 

"Master: How. came your knavery by such experience? 

"Page: As fools do by news; somebody told me so, and 1 
believed it.'' 

The above is from the Times of the 28th ult. 
We do not attempt a reply because the paragraph or 
its author deserves it, but simply for the sake of the 
cause to which we are devoted, and for the vindi- 
cation of our veracity, so needlessly and ungentle- 
manly called in question. We said that Lovejoy's 
letter is in favor of slavery. Readers will please read 
extracts from said letter given below, and we are 
content that they shall determine upon the question 
whether our statement is a ''lying paragraph" or not. 
Mr. Lovejoy, among other things, says as follows 
(the itaHcizing is ours) : 

But my convictions at the present time are, not only 
that the slaveholders have a complete vindication of their 
present position; but they are entitled to be looked upon as 
benefactors to the country and to the human race. . . . 

The South are impregnable. The Constitution pro- 
tects them, the Bible protects them, and the experience of man- 
kind protects them. . . . 

It can not be denied that the idea of slavery rims through 
all the Bible; it was stamped upon the entire history of the 
Jewish nation, and upon the history of every vigorous na- 
tion upon the face of the earth; indeed, I strongly suspect 
this is the normal condition of large portions of a depraved 
race, and I can readily believe that a man may sustain the 
relation of slaveholder, in all good conscience, and with 
the entire Divine approbation. . . . 

American slavery has pi'oduced and cultivated more 
African intellect, more social affection, more Christian emo- 
tion in two hundred years, than all Africa (Central or 



SHOWING UP FALLACY. 



227 



Southern) for two thousand years. American slavery is a 
redemption, a deliverance from African heathenism. . . . 

The best thing that could be done for Africa, if they 
could live there, would be to tend them a hundred thou- 
sand American slaveholders, to work them up to some de- 
gree of civilization. . . . 

So far as Africa is concerned, the slave-trade was, and 
is, humane in its operations; its abolition was the result of 
sentiment, and not the determination of calm, deliberate 
statesmanship. . . . 

If more laborers are needed for Texas, Central America, 
parts of Mexico, and Cuba, they ought to be brought, 
without objections, under such humane regulations as are 
made in other cases for the comfort of passengers. . . . 

As to the influence of slavery on the character of the 
whites, that is quite another question; but so far as the 
political history of our country is concerned, it is not easy 
to see how we could do without slaveholders. . . . 

If the author of these extracts is not in favor 
of slavery, then he is an arrant hypocrite; and if 
the extracts do not sustain our position, then we 
confess we can not understand language. What con- 
nection the previous publication of Mr. Lovejoy's let- 
ter in the Times has with the conclusions of its new 
editor, or how that should induce him to ''thus speak," 
it is difficult to conceive. The time is approaching 
in Oregon, if it has not already come, when men 
in public stations must evince self-respect and gentle- 
manly bearing towards others if they would be re- 
spected themselves. The predecessor of the present 
editor of the Times commenced a similar tirade against 
certain respectable citizens in Oregon. He commenced, 
too, by quoting Shakespeare. He soon ran his inglo- 
rious race and left the country, fallen beneath the 
contempt of respectable men. We forewarn the pres- 
ent editor that an equally ignoble but speedier fate 
awaits him, unless, he profits by the example just 
cited. 



228 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

It was the expectation of the Secessionists in 
the Southern States, that Oregon and California 
would secede when the Southern States drew off 
from the Union, and organized the Southern Con- 
federacy. Political emissaries from California, who 
were ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, and who had organized that Church in CaU- 
fornia, came to Oregon, and made political speeches 
in favor of the Breckinridge and Lane ticket, de- 
nouncing the Black Repubhcans as disunionists, 
and predicting that if Oregon went Republican, 
and if Lincoln should be elected, the country would 
be involved in civil war, and blood would run in 
consequence up to the horses' bridles. The iri- 
descent dream of the Southern fire-eaters and Se- 
cessionists, that the Pacific States would join the 
Southern Confederacy, had some little shadow of 
probability in their knowledge that a large majority 
of the emigrants to California and Oregon were 
from Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Texas, and 
Missouri. The following editorial was leveled 
against the untruths of these secession agitators 
in the issue of June 20, 1863: 

MISREPRESENTATION. 

While on a recent trip to Jackson County, we 
learned that the emissaries of the Church South are 
earnestly and persistently representing that the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church is the seceding Church, and 
that the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is the 
old organization. It will be remembered that Rev. 
O. Fisher, when he was in the country two or three 
years since, represented the same things^ which we 



DEB A TES ON SLA VER Y~BISHOP ANDRE W. 229 

then denied, and we did not suppose it would be re- 
peated, or, if repeated, believed ; yet the old adage, 
"a lie well stuck to is better than the truth," seems 
to find support in this instance ; for we found persons 
recently who actually professed to believe that the 
Methodist Episcopal Church is the seceding body, and 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the original 
one, holding the old organizatioij and rights. We 
propose to recite a little of the history of the Great 
Secession of 1844-1845, for the correctness of which 
we would vouch, and appeal, for those who desire the 
proof, to Elliott's "Qreat Secession," and ''The Meth- 
odist Church Property Case," a stout, octavo pam- 
phlet published by the Methodist Book Concern in 
New York, in 185 1. In the General Conference of 
1844, two cases came up for adjudication, viz. : First, 
the appeal of F. A. Harding against the action of 
the Baltimore Conference. The Baltimore Confer- 
ence had suspended him from the ministry for refus- 
ing to manumit certain slaves which came into his 
possession by marriage. From this action Mr. Hard- 
ing appealed. (See Methodist Church Property Case, 
pages 57, 58, 59.) After full discussion, during four 
days, a motion was made by John Early, of Virginia, 
afterwards a bishop of the Church South, to reverse 
the decision of the Baltimore Conference. The vote 
stood as follows: Nays, 117; yeas, 56. The chair 
decided that this vote virtually affirmed the action of 
the Baltimore Conference. W. Capers took an appeal 
from his decision. The decision of the chair was sus- 
tained by III for, and 53 against. • 

The other exciting case which came up for action 
in the General Conference of 1844, was that of Rev. 
Bishop Andrew. Bishop Andrew was elected a bishop 
when a non-slaveholder. Some years afterwards, by 
bequests and by marriage, he became possessed of 



230 SIXTY- ONE VEAMS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

slaves, and this fact coming officially before the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1844, the subject was discussed 
variously for some two weeks, when the following pre- 
amble and resolutions were adopted by a vote of no 
yeas and 68 nays,- viz. : 

Whereas, The Discipline ot our Church forbids the 
doing anything calculated to destroy our itinerant general 
superintendency ; and 

Whereas, Bishop Andrew has become connected with 
slavery, by marriage and otherwise, and this act having 
drawn after it circumstances which, in the estimation of the 
General Conference, will greatly embarrass the exercise of 
his office as an itinerant general superintendent, if not in 
some places entirely prevent it; therefore. 

Resolved, That it is the sense of this General Conference 
that he desist from the exercise of his office so long as this 
impediment remains. 

Various resolutions^ declaratory and otherwise, 
and a protest, were offered, and, finally, a committee 
of nine was appointed on a Plan of Separation. They 
reported a plan, the very first condition of which was, 
''That should the Annual Conferences in the slave* 
holding States find it necessary to unite in a distinct 
ecclesiastical connection, the following rule shall be 
observed with regard to the northern boundary of 
said connection ;" i. e., a majority vote of the mem- 
bers of said societies, stations, and Conferences should 
govern in deciding their relation, whether to the new 
organization proposed, or to the old one. Provision 
was also made to submit the Sixth Restrictive Rule to 
a vote of* all the Conferences, as to whether they 
would sanction a division of the funds of the Church 
should the Southern Conferences separate from the 
Church. This last failed to receive the necessary 
majority to authorize the division of property. The 
delegates from the South held a meeting in the city 



ACTION OF THE SOUTHERN DELEGATES. 23 1 

of New Yolk on the next day after the adjournment 
of the General Conference, and called a Convention 
in Louisville, Ky., for May i, 1845, thus forestalling 
the action of the Conferences as provided for by the 
General Conference, The Convention met, having 
delegates from sixteen of the Conferences in slave- 
holding territory, and, by a vote of ninety-four yeas 
to three nays, erected the Annual Conferences repre- 
sented in the Convention, "into a distinct ecclesi- 
astical connection, separate from the jurisdiction of 
the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church as at present constituted," adopting "the doc- 
trines and rules and regulations of said Discipline, 
except only so far as verbal alteration may be neces- 
sary to a distinct organization," and "to be known 
by the style and title of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, SotUh." The whole • proceedings of the 
South to obtain what they claimed was their share of 
the funds of the Church were upon the idea that the 
Church from which they had separated was the orig- 
inal, old organization, taking date in 1784. 

If persons are ignorant or wicked enough to teach 
the contrary in Oregon, in the year of grace 1863, 
and there are those here who are weak enough to 
believe such perversions, without informing them- 
selves, we sincerely pity them, assuring them that the 
means are within reach, fully to set them right in the 
premises. 

"HOWLING DERVISHES." 

One of our Oregon contemporaries, who is "down 
on the war," alluding to the Copperhead report of the 
proceedings of the New York Conference, denounces 
the preachers of that Conference severely for their 
political proclivities, and calls them "howling der- 
vishes." He says there are some in Oregon who re- 



232 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 



semble those New York preachers. If to stand up 
for one's country 

"through storm and night," 

and in every practicable way to defend the fair fame 
and the just rights of the inheritance bequeathed by 
our fathers, subjects them to the epithets of such men 
and such sheets, probably the Oregon preachers al- 
luded to will bear the odium thus cast upon them with 
meekness, but without abating a jot of their efforts 
for the good cause. 

The follow'ing is in the same line as the fore- 
going. The writer was a transfer from the Balti- 
more Conference. It will indicate the animus of 
those w^ho opposed the w^ar for the Union : 

Mr. Editor, — As the writer's name appears under the 
report "On the State of the Country," passed at the late 
session of the Oregon Annual Conierence, and may, without 
qualification, create a wrong impression upon the minds of 
his friends, it is deemed proper to beg the indulgence of your 
readers to say that he voted against the fourth resolution 
of that report as it now stands, because he thought its adop- 
tion might possibly embarrass true Union-loving ministers 
beyond the bounds of the said Conference. Second, because, 
as it appeared to him, one Conference has no right to 
indicate the line of conduct for their equals of another Con- 
ference. This last objection is based upon the opinion that 
the term "ministers," as used in the resolution and con- 
nection, embraces ministers generally. For these reasons 
an amendment was moved so as to make the resolution 
applicable to the ministers of the Oregon Conference only, 
leaving those of other Conferences and Churches to act on 
the subject, without advice, according to their own sense 
of duty, which the Oregon Conference claim the right ot 
doing for themselves. Had more time for the examination of 
the sixth resolution been allowed, he would have voted 
against that also, unless the language of it had been so un- 



CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS. 



233 



derstood as hyperbolically expressing the sentiment that the 
Union is worth maintaining at a great sacrifice. 

Respectfully, George; M. Be^rry. 

August 28, 1861. 

We regret that Brother Berry has deemed it neces- 
sary to bring this subject, in this form, before the 
public, lest the impression should be unfavorable to 
him ; and also, lest it should be inferred that the Con- 
ference was not generally agreed in its action. To 
prevent misapprehension, we subjoin a brief state- 
ment of facts : As a member of the committee. 
Brother Berry agreed to the report before it was 
submitted. In the discussion before the Conference, 
Brother Berry opposed the fourth resolution, and he 
and one other voted against it. On the adoption 
of the report as a whole, the yeas and nays being 
called, the vote was unanimous, Brother Berry's name 
being recorded with the others in its favor. The Con- 
ference acted deliberately, the report occupying a 
considerable portion of two days. Brother Berry, 
in common with the other members of the Confer- 
ence, had full opportunity to discuss the resolution, 
and his privilege was freely used. The report will 
speak for itself. It is quite unnecessary to re-argue 
the matter in our columns. 

The following editorial, which appeared in the 
columns of the Pacific Christian Advocate, May 3, 
1862, needs no explanation. It shows with what 
tenacity the opposers of suppressing the secession 
and rebellion adhered to their cause: 

" SECESSION— SCHISM." 
The April number of the Oregon Churchman has 
an article on "Secession — Schism." The ground 
taken is that the separations among Christians are 



234 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

really schisms, and are generally and properly de- 
nominated secessions. We quote two passages for the 
purpose of comment (italicizing is ours) : 

Unquestionably the strongest argument used against per- 
mitting a secession from our Republic is, that if .allowed in one 
instance it ivill probably be repeated in others, until a total dis- 
integration ensue, and thence universal anarchy. If this reason- 
ing be sound, is it not equally applicable to our ecclesiastical 
affairs? Nay, even more; for political separations are neces- 
sarily territorial, while the others are indiscriminate. In the 
State of Oregon alone, for example, there are at least four- 
teen distinct ecclesiastical organizations, entirely independent 
of each other. And where is this to end? for if the first se- 
cession be justifiable, so is each successive one which has 
occurred, or may yet occur. 

The argument stated is by no means "the strong- 
est used against permitting a secession from our Re- 
public.'* A much stronger one is that State secession 
is itself subversive of government and a crime be- 
fore God, and it is as really so whether one State, or 
many, secede. The principle is radically mischievous 
and dangerous as well as wicked. The strongest ar- 
gument against murder, or any other form of disobe- 
dience to law, is not that if allowed in one instance 
"it will probably be repeated in others, until" mur- 
ders and other felonies are common. That is an 
argument, but not the strongest. Wherein is the 
reasoning against State secession different from that 
against other forms of lawlessness? State secession 
is not a question of policy or expediency ; it is a crime. 

Nor, again, are "political separations necessarily 
territorial;" i. e., they are not confined to the seceded 
portion nor are they necessarily nor chiefly territorial. 
State secession is such a violation of law as would 
work territorial and political injury to the portions 
seceded from as well as the portion seceding, and it is 



SECESSION—SCHISM. 



a crime; it would work moral injury to both parties, 
and, by example, to all nations. This reasoning, 
therefore, is not sound in political separations, and, 
if it were, it would not be sound, nor "equally ap- 
plicable to ecclesiastical affairs," because it assumes 
that conformity to one particular form of Church 
order and organization is Scripturally enjoined, and 
that, therefore, dissent and nonconformity are crim- 
inal. We think it will trouble the Churchman to es- 
tablish these positions. Nor yet does it necessarily 
or logically follow, that "if the first secession be justi- 
fiable, so is each successive one which may occur." 
If "each successive one" were for the same cause or 
causes, or for equally weighty ones as the first, the 
first being justifiable, so would be the following ones. 
That every Church secession is for the same or equal 
reasons as all others, is assumption. Let it be proved. 
The second paragraph we quote is as follows : 

Another very grave inquiry suggested by this state of 
facts is, as to the extent of its influence upon our social and 
political relations. It is evident that men's religious edu- 
cation and sentiments form the strongest element in their 
character, and ultimately control all their leading principles 
of action. Now all will admit that the tendency of our people 
in ecclesiastical matters has been towards secession, and that 
their practical training has been in that school. Of all the 
leading Protestant bodies which existed at the time of the 
adoption of our National Constitution, one only remained 
a unit until the beginning of our present troubles. Each of 
the others has, at different times, been divided, and sub- 
divided by secession. The same is substantially true in Eng- 
land. And the exceptional Church, identical in the two 
countries, has ever protested against both the principle and 
practice of separation, as well in her doctrinal teaching as 
in her constitution. 

There is one cogent fact which goes far to weaken 
this reasoning : The portion of the United States most 
loyal, and where State secession is most abhorrent. 



236 ■ SIXTY-UNE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

is by far more divided into sects and separate Church 
organizations, and more afflicted with what the writer 
calls schism, than the seceded portion. How is this? 
Other facts may be cited. One of the supplications 
in the Litany of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
and to which the congregations, South as well as 
North, have been responding for generations, "Good 
Lord, deliver us," is "from all sedition, privy con- 
spiracy, and rebellion." Yet that Church, with all its 
unity, orthodoxy, and prayers against rebellion, has 
not prevented its ministers and members in the South 
from joining the rebeUious forces arrayed against the 
Government, and one of them — Rev. Bishop Leonidas 
Polk, of Tennessee — is leading armies against the loyal 
citizens of his own country. If schism be so fruitful 
of "political separations'* and rebellions, and adher- 
ence to the only undivided, national Church organ- 
ization be so potent to conserve the State, as the 
argument implies, what are we to think of this case? 

More of the navy and army chaplains, previous 
to the rebellion, have been of the Protestant Epis- 
copal denomination than of any, and, we believe, of 
all others, and that, too, while that denomination is 
numerically one of the least in the Nation. Yet the army 
and navy exhibited many sad and sickening examples 
of perjury and foul treason. If the Churchman's 
reasoning were good, and there were such political 
benefit to be derived from the influence of a Church 
which has "ever protested against the principle and 
practice of separation, as well in her doctrinal teach- 
ing as in her constitution," how comes it to pass 
that some of, the most flagrant examples of "sedition, 
privy conspiracy, and rebellion," have occurred among 
those who have enjoyed only the ministrations of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church? 

With all the writer's abhorrence of Church seces- 



CHURCHES NOT SCHISMATIC. 



237 



sion, he has not intimated — he ought, we think — that 
State secession is inherently wrong, as well as of dan- 
gerous tendency. We have no war to wage against 
the Protestant Episcopal Church. We were born a 
member of its elder sister. We honor that Church 
for its fidelity to evangelical truth ; for its strong front 
against infidelity ; for its stability ; and we glory in the 
good it has done and which it is doing; but when 
certain of its "chief ministers,'^ who maintain a marked 
reticence upon the horrible crime of rebellion as now 
raging, attempt to asperse those of other denomina- 
tions as schismatics, and impute to their doctrines and 
practice secession and rebellion, such impertinence 
demands rebuke. In administering it, we would dis- 
criminate, and except those who, like Dr. Tyng, of 
New York, are truly catholic, and who say, ''Grace 
be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in 
sincerity." 



1 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



HE following Thanksgiving sermon was 



1 preached by me in Portland, Oregon, Novem- 
ber 27, 1 862, while the War for the Union was being 
prosecuted. It was published by request. The 
texts were Jeremiah xviii, 6, 10, inclusive, and the 
one hundredth Psalm: 

By official Proclamation of the Executive of this 
State, we are summoned from the ordinary pursuits 
of life to devote a day to thanksgiving and prayer, 
to humiliation before God, and to devout gratitude 
to the Sovereign Arbiter of human destiny, the Tord 
of lords and King of kings. 

The fact that all the loyal States of the Union, 
with only two or three exceptions, have agreed upon 
this as a day of public thanksgiving that the morning 
sun as he sheds his early beams on the Atlantic slope 
continues in his western circuit, to call successive 
States — from Orient to Occident — ^to this delightful 
and appropriate exercise, until a great and mighty 
Nation are prostrate before Jehovah, in supplication 
or adoration, heightens the interest of the occasion, 
and exhibits a sublime and most encouraging spec- 
tacle. 

There are two leading thoughts contained in the 
Proclamation upon which I would fix your attention 
with somewhat of detail. They are the duties of humili- 
ation and prayer for national sins; thanksgiving and 
praise for national blessings. 

It is atheistic to deny national accountability and 
dependence. Shall we admit a God in creation and in 




238 



THANKSGIVING SERMON. 



239 



all the mighty framework of nature, and preclude him 
from cognizance and supervision of human affairs, 
whether personal or corporate? This is as irreligious 
as it is unphilosophical. The Lord sitteth above the 
floods. He ruleth in the heavens, and doeth his pleas- 
ure among the sons of men. While he numbers the 
hairs of our heads, and not a falling sparrow escapes 
his notice; while 

"There 's not a tint that paints the rose 
Or decks the lily fair, 
Or streaks the humblest flower that grows, 
But God has placed it there," 

it is equally true that by him "kings rule and princes 
decree justice;" that "He setteth up one and putteth 
down another;" that he holds ruler and subject alike 
accountable for human conduct, rewarding and pun- 
ishing, as that conduct is, or is not, according to his 
rule of right. Let no man, and no corporation, no 
community, and no nation think to evade this account- 
ability. God's government, like his presence, is uni- 
versal. His authority, like his omniscience, extends to 
all beings. 

His moral government is as far-reachingand effect- 
ive as to moral beings as his physical is as to material 
objects. As well might a man think to escape the law 
of gravitation while in the body, or to respire- without 
the vital air, as to avoid the moral control which God 
exercises over men and nations. These conclusions 
are inevitable if we admit the existence of God. Even 
if there were no light of revelation to shine upon the 
question, doth not nature herself speak with irresistible 
conclusiveness? Doth not reason concur with nature 
in proclaiming the sovereignty as well as the existence 
of God, as really in morals as in physics? Admit God's 
existence, and his control follows, alike in moral as in 
material, equally in great as in small affairs. 



240 SIXTY- OJVE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

As God exists the Sovereign Lawgiver and Judge, 
the dispenser and enforcer of law, national as well as 
personal, righteousness or sin follows as we observe 
or disregard his law. No time shall be lost in debating 
whether that law is written in the Bible or voiced in 
nature. Nature and revelation agree in this funda- 
mental rule of equity as to persons, "All things what- 
soever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye 
even so unto them." And they also agree in this fun- 
damental condition of national growth or decay, ele- 
vation or depression, progress or retrogression. 
"Righteousness exalteth a nation — sin is a reproach to 
any people." "The powers that be are ordained of 
God." They are ordained "as a terror to evil-doers, 
and a praise to them that do well." 

General commercial prosperity has attended our pro- 
gress through another year. It is true that privateer- 
ing has somewhat interrupted commerce in some parts 
of the world, but this has not been general. Our ex- 
ports have been carried in American ships, and our 
navy has everywhere covered itself with glory by its 
victorious career of defense against the rebellious ports 
and vessels of the Southern Confederacy. The marts 
of commerce have been open, and the centers of busi- 
ness have been full and active. It was predicted when 
the rebellion broke out that New York, Boston, Phila- 
delphia, and other great business centers would be- 
come wastes ; that the grass would grow in the streets, 
etc. On the contrary, more activity and commercial 
thrift has been realized than had been known in ordi- 
nary periods. 

There has been a happy exemption from disease. 
Plague and pestilence have not been suffered to brood 
over the land, filling it with shadows and tears. Sad 
it is to think of the havoc of war, and of the sighs and 
tears of widowhood and orphanage; yet we may well 



OUR NATIONAL PROGRESS. 



241 



be thankful before the Lord that he has granted us 
health and plenty in all our borders. 

Our progress in science, inventions, and religion has 
been most gratifying. While the tread of armies and 
the booming of war's dread artillery have shaken the 
land, the schools, colleges, and academies have stood 
open, and the young have been trained in sound learn- 
ing, while literature and discovery have extended their 
sphere and multiplied their triumphs. Inventions have 
elevated us into the greatest of maritime powers in the 
world. The naval engagements of the War of 18 12 
proved us then to be more than a match for the proud 
British Empire, to which for centuries had been con- 
ceded the naval supremacy of all the world. The 
achievements of the Monitor excited at first the terror, 
and then the admiration of other Powers. 

Religion has held sway, even during the preva- 
lence of grim^visaged war. Our army is a more re- 
ligious one than was ever marshaled. The Sabbath is 
respected, profane swearing is interdicted by army 
orders. Our generals, and more recently our com- 
mander-in-chief, President Lincoln, have issued orders 
directing the observance of the Sabbath. A thousand 
chaplains minister to the bodily and mental welfare 
of our million troops ; and when our soldiers fall in 
battle they afford them amelioration for their bodily 
sufferings, and point them, when dying, to ''the Lamb 
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." 

Then, too, you will observe that the missionary 
operations of the Church have progressed without in- 
terruption or abatement. Though pecuniary pressure 
has rested upon the country, yet the fiow of voluntary 
contributions to the channels of Christian benevolence 
has been constant and undiminished. 

Besides, consider with what a generous benevo- 
lence the demands of the wounded and sick of our 
16 



242 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



troops have been met. Untaxed by State enactments 
and unenforced by legal claims, lint, clothing, nursing, 
luxuries, have been procured, and bestowed with a 
promptitude and profusion unparalleled in history. 
Contributions for the Sanitary Commission have 
flowed in from all parts, from the mountain and the 
valley, from the forest dell and the broad prairies, from 
agricultural and mining districts, uniting a thousand 
rivulets to form a swelling river of benevolence. Silver 
bricks from Washoe, golden bars from Lewiston, and 
coin from other places, have gone singing with a 
merry jingle to their merciful mission. 

Another occasion of thanksgiving is the exist- 
ence and exhibition of the noblest Christian patriotism 
upon the grandest scale. 

When the glorious banner was insulted at Sum- 
ter, and its brave defenders were beleaguered by swarm- 
ing thousands of rebels, an electric thrill of patriotic 
sympathy pervaded the whole loyal States, and sev- 
enty-five thousand men rushed at the call of their 
President to defend the National Capital, and then a 
half million, and afterwards as many more, ranged 
themselves on the side of the country, the laws, and 
the nationality. Brave, ''constant as the polar star," 
valorous, and invincible^ a wall of living breasts sur- 
rounds the rebel district, to conquer or to die. To say 
that all this springs from love of country, simply be- 
cause it is the place of our birth, or because it is a 
great and glorious land, is to describe an inadequate 
cause for such an effect. 

That is not the brightest type of patriotism. There 
are other lands as beautiful ; other regions where the 
skies are as serene, where the drapery of mountain and 
valley, woodland and lawn, is as lovely; where the air 
is rs genial and balmy as in this ; and, besides, there are 
adopted citizens from vine-clad France and from the 



CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM. 



243 



forests of Germany, from the hills of Switzerland, Eng- 
land, and from Ireland, whose patriotic zeal burns 
as fervently as that of the native citizen. The patriot- 
ism of the American citizen has a higher, nobler source 
than this. It takes hold of the great principles of de- 
mocracy. It battles for our institutions, and it intelli- 
gently comprehends their exalted character and their 
inestimable value. It is a Christian patriotism, such 
as that for which the Pilgrims left the soil of op- 
pression, and planted themselves 

"On a stern and rock-bound coast." 

Our Constitution is Christian. It does not indeed 
enact Christianity as a State religion. Christianity 
needs no such support. It is only burdened and in- 
jured by such trammels. Christ said, "My kingdom 
is not of this world." Yet while no clause in the Con- 
stitution says that Christianity shall be the established 
religion, and while we would not upon any account 
have it so say, it gives free toleration to all sects and 
opinions and creeds. It lays no edict of restriction 
nor prohibition upon the creeds and consciences of 
the people, leaving every man free to elect his own 
theory, and to worship according to the dictates of his 
own conscience, and it is pervaded throughout by the 
principles and spirit of Christianity. 

Our Government is based upon the acknowledged 
rights of the masses. The divine right of kings is the 
foundation of monarchies ; the possession of physical 
power is the patent of despots; but the Government 
under whose genial shadow we have been protected 
and fostered recognizes the rights, God-given and in- 
alienable, of all men to self-government. The ruler 
and subject among us as to natural rights are equal; 
in fact, the ruler is the servant of the people, from 
whom he derives his right to govern them. 



244 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



The force of this view is not to be broken by aver- 
ring that while this is the case in theory, in reahty the 
fact is otherwise. The slavery in the United States is 
such by the force of State laws. "The Declaration of 
Independence was the germ from which the Constitu- 
tion grew into a goodly tree. While our fathers who 
framed the Constitution were from slave States, they 
were very careful not to allow the words slave and 
slavery to enter it. They could not say one thing in 
the Declaration, and the opposite in the Constitution." 

See how they resisted the idea of rank and titles 
and dignities. The South Carolinians, then, as now, 
the evil genius of the Nation, sought to incorporate 
slavery into that sacred instrument; but their efforts 
were vain. The Constitution, so far as the Federal 
Union was concerned, is the product of a triumphant 
struggle for freedom. In that struggle three things 
were accomplished: ''i. The foreign slave-trade was 
doomed, and that before an}^ other civilized power 
had condemned it. 2. The word slave was not allowed 
to occur in the Constitution; the allusions to it were 
circumlocutions such as the pious emplo}' when quot- 
ing an instance of profanity. 3. The Constitution 
was framed with prophetic cunning for the day of uni- 
versal liberty; and if the whole country should to- 
morrow, either by the action of the States interested, 
or as an incident of the war, contain none but free 
States, the Constitution would not want an amend- 
ment to conform it to the new state of things. There 
would be marks to intimate its history, and to tell what 
dangerous roads it had been called to travel, but it 
would Avant neither piecing, nor patching, nor darn- 
ing. This, I confess, gives to my affection for my 
country the sanction of my reason, and enables my 
religion all the easier to ally itself with and to invig- 
orate and inflame my patriotism. And we may say of 



I 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 245 



the Constitution, in view of the struggles through 
which it has triumphantly passed, as the dying Jacob 
said of Joseph: 'The archers have sorely grieved him, 
and shot at him, and hated him; but his bow abode 
in strength, and the arms of his hands were made 
strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.' " 

Thus we find that our General Government, now 
attempted to be overthrown, is in perfect agreement 
with Christ's doctrines of the freedom of religion and 
the brotherhood of men. So that not only are we 
bound to our country by the ties of nativity or cordial 
adoption, by its physical features, by its history, and 
by its hterature ; these are only as a beautiful frame 
in which is set the living picture of our moral and 
religious convictions. Our patriotism, therefore, with- 
out scruple — nay, with joy — receives into its bosom the 
element of religion, and feels that, in defending the 
country, it is defending not merely mountains and 
rivers, not merely geographical boundaries, but the 
very cause of God himself. 

These facts bring into the present conflict the 
martyr element, rendering our soldiers heroic. It was 
the conviction of a high sense of right and duty which 
nerved their arm in battle and bore them on to noble 
deeds, which animated them in the dreadful fight and 
cheered them as they fell under the iron hail of battle. 
A martyr is a witness unto blood for the truth of God. 
''The unholy war now waging is waged by the enemies 
of the doctrine of Christ, that freedom of religious 
thought and action and universal brotherhood are the 
rights of man." 

The great idea of the gospel is man's right to self- 
government and religious toleration; and for this not 
only professed Christians, but the whole loyal portion 
of the Union are devoting their blood and treasure. 
They have drunk in this sentiment with their earliest 



246 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITIXERAXT WORK. 



food, and our adopted fellow-citizens have imbibed 
it as they do our native air. It is a principle for which 
they are fighting, and the result can not be doubtful. 
Our path as a Nation may lie through fire and storm; 
long years of trial and conflict may be before us; 
France and England and Austria may intervene, and 
the present army may melt away, only to be succeeded 
by another and another; but through all and beyond 
all I see the coming certain victory. This Nation will 
survive; freedom will live; self-government will be per- 
petuated ; and from the present darkness and strife and 
disaster will emerge the Republic, regenerated by its 
baptism of blood and fire. Our gallant ship of State, 
however angrily the surges of rebellion and disaster 
may dash against her, and through whatever storms 
and tempests her course may lead, shall not founder. 
The poetic prophecy shall become history — 

"Her topsails feel the freshening gale; 
She strikes the opening sea; 
She rounds the points, she threads the keys 

That guard the land of flowers, 
And rides at last where firm and fast 
Her own Gibraltar towers! 

The good ship Union's voj age is o'er, 

At anchor safe she swings, 
And loud and clear with cheer on cheer, 

Her joyous welcome rings; 
Hurrah ! Hurrah ! it shakes the wave, 

It thunders on the shore — 
One flag, one land, one heart, one hand. 

One nation, evermore!" 

Has not God said, ''I will overturn, overturn, over- 
turn it?" Now such a patriotism, founded in such 
principles, rooted in such a soil, and contending with 
such enemies and for such a priceless inheritance, is 



EDITORIAL ON PATRIOTISM. 



247 



worthy of our gratitude. We may and we should unite 
as a people to render praise to God that we live to 
mingle in such a strife: that we are permitted to feel 
the impulses of this Divine patriotism, and to share the 
glory of that inexpressible victory, when, not in theory 
only, but in deed and in truth, we, as a Nation, shall 
have wrought out and fought out and maintained, 
God's blessing upon our patriotism and our arms, that 
glorious truth, ''Liberty and Union, one and inseparable ^ 
now and for ever r 

The paper still continued to show its patriotism 
and loyalty to the Government, as well as to pro- 
mote the spiritual interests of its readers. The fol- 
lowing editorials were inserted at the dates indi- 
cated : 

PATRIOTISM. (May 3, 1862.) 

*'The love of one's country; the passion which 
aims to serve one's country, either in defending it 
from invasion, or protecting its rights, and maintain- 
ing its laws and institutions in vigor and purity," is 
defined to be patriotism. It is certainly the "char- 
acteristic of a good citizen," and "the noblest passion 
that animates a man in the character of a citizen." 
We go further, and aver that we can not see how a 
man who lacks patriotism can be a Christian. If un- 
true to his country, how can he be true to his God? 
"He that is unjust in that which is least, is unjust also 
in that which is much." If a man be true to his God, 
he can not be untrue to his country; because the love 
of country is implanted by the Creator, and fidelity 
to one's country is enjoined in the Word of God. Yet 
patriotism is not the whole of religion. The same law 
which enjoins civil obedience, and the same I^awgivei 



248 SIXTV-OKE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

who denounces resistance to the powers that be, de- 
mand that while we render to "Caesar the things that 
are Caesar's," we shall render to God the things that 
are God's. The former Christians should do, and not 
leave the latter undone. It is a matter of gratitude and 
hope that this Rebellion is developing bright and glo- 
rious examples of patriotism. What a record is that 
of Anderson, and Slemmer, and Doubleday, and Hart, 
and Brownlow, and Andrew Johnson, and Prentice, 
and the six hundred and fifty thousand men who are 
laying their lives on the altar of country! There are 
many unwritten examples. Bankers have freely ten- 
dered their money, artisans their labors and inventions ; 
women, amid their tears, and with well-nigh breaking 
hearts, have yielded their husbands, fathers, sons, 
brothers, and lovers for the common safety and de- 
liverance. All this has been voluntary; there has been 
no conscription or impressment. Self-moved and vol- 
untary, twenty millions — with occasional exceptions — ' 
have tendered everything sacred and dear on earth 
for the defense of their country. Who can look upon 
this remarkable exhibition without thanking God that 
he is an American citizen? The mind loves to linger 
upon individual instances and admire them. An old 
naval ofBcer who had seen ^ a half-century of service 
under the Starry Banner, was approached by rebels, 
who sought to seduce him from his allegiance. They 
offered him money, promotion, honors, if he would 
desert his flag, and raise the Palmetto standard. He 
asked them whether, after fifty years of service in the 
United States navy, rendered under his official oath, 
they could trust him should he join them. They re- 
sponded affirmatively. "Then," said the noble, scarred 
veteran, "if after all that you could trust me, I could 
not trust you!" and the seducers desisted. 



J 



PATRIOTISM. 



249 



Not less striking is an instance which occurred in 
Charleston, South Carolina. We submit it as we find 
it in one of our exchanges : 

Poor F is dead. Before the fall of Sumter he ex- 
erted all his influence, using both pen and voice against 
rebellion, until he was thrown into prison. At first he was 
treated as an ordinary criminal awaiting trial; but after the 
battle of Manassas the Confederates seemed drunk with 
triumph at their victory, and mad with rage over the vast 
number of victims who fell in their ranks. I wrote you with 
what pomp this city mourned for her dead; amid it all, when 

the Confederate host seemed likely to win, F was offered 

freedom and promotion if he would espouse the Confederate 
cause. "I have sworn allegiance to the Union," said he, "and 
am not one to break my pledge." When tempted with pro- 
motion if he could be prevailed on to enlist beneath their 
banner, he said, "I love Carolina and the South; but I love 
m-y country better." 

Finding him faithful to the flag he loved, he was made 
to feel the power of his enemies. He was cast into a miser- 
able, damp, ill-ventilated cell, and fed on coarse fare; half the 
time neglected by his drunken keeper. His property was 
confiscated, and his wife and children beggared. Poor fellow! 
he sank beneath his troubles, and was soon removed from 
the persecution of his oppressors. The day before his death 
he said to his wife, "Mary, you are beggared because I would 
not prove disloyal." "God be thanked for your fidelity!" re- 
plied the wife. "They have taken your wealth and life, but 
could not stain your honor, and our children shall boast of 
an unspotted name. My husband, rejoice in your truth." 
She returned to her friends after his death, openly declaring 
her proudest boast should be, her husband died a martyr to 
his patriotism. Who shall say the day of heroism has 
passed? 

We will not cite further examples at the present; 
but we take leave to suggest that religion also has de- 
mands upon us as Christians, as ministers, and as men. 
In the excitements raging around us, and while pa- 
triotism summons us to the rescue, let us not be for- 



250 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



getful of the religious duties we owe to God, to our- 
selves, to our fellow-men. The Pittsburg Advocate has 
a timely article on revival excitements. We give a 
portion of it, and commend it to our readers: 

It is no longer an experiment what effect the war is to 
have on the institution of Christianity. Ten months of trial 
has settled the question. At the beginning of the rebelhon 
all seemed uncertain and conjectural, and the outlook into 
the future was gloomy and forbidding. Now prominent and 
well-defined landmarks lie all around us. Guided by the 
lights of the past month, it is easy to take soundings and 
see whither we are drifting. 

Throughout the rebel States religion has greatly suf- 
fered. The papers published in the interest of the various 
denominations have mostly yielded to the pressure of the 
hour, and suspended. Occasional!}^ a voice reaches us be- 
wailing the desolations of Zion, and pointing to the temples 
of religion as deserted and silent. Evidences from the South 
are cumulative, that the history of religion under the incubus 
of rebellion is a history of gloom and sadness. Societies 
scattered, ministers without flocks and without support, the 
benevolent enterprises of the Church paral^-zed, — these are 
pictures of religious life at the South as drawn by their own 
Hmners. It is not so with us. Except along the border, re- 
ligious institutions continue to be observed, and religious 
enterprises continue to move much as was their wont in times 
of peace. The religious press is in vigorous operation. 
Churches are well attended, and the support of the various 
religious establishments suffer cnly in proportion with the 
general monetary interests of the country. Prosperity, so 
grateful to the religious sense of the Nation, and withal 
so unexpected, is cause for gratitude to the beneficent Giver 
of every good and perfect gift. To all this a new evidence 
of the Divine benediction on the Churches of the loyal 
States is now to be superadded. Revival notices begin to 
appear in the most of our religious exchanges, and form, 
indeed, a considerable department in our own Church papers. 
At no former period were these "times of refreshing from 
the presence of the Lord" more grateful and encouraging, 
since they attest that, amid the din and smoke of battle, God 
has not forgotten his Church. 



THE REBELLION. 



But it is a question whether we are enjoying the utmost 
prosperity that might fall to our lot. Perhaps we have al- 
lowed the vast interests of religion to be thrown too much 
into the shade by the towering and irresistible war spirit 
that rules in the land. Perhaps we have not talked too much 
about patriotism and the war; but too little about the sal- 
vation of souls. Jesus Christ and him crucified, salvation by 
faith, and reformations that shall lead to a life of well-doing, 
are the subHme themes of the gospel ministry. These topics 
will make the pulpit successful in winning souls even during 
war times. But they must not be assigned a secondary rank. 
The welfare of the soul is, beyond all other questions, of in- 
finite moment. Nothing should be allowed to paralyze ef- 
forts for its salvation — not politics, nor the pursuit of wealth, 
nor even patriotism in this hour when the national life is in 
controversy. It is the one work of the ministry to save men. 
And it is pleasant to reflect that this work is going on with 
vigor, though the Nation is involved in all the horrors of a 
gigantic war. The honored minister of God, favored with 
success in his work of winning souls, is achieving nobler 
victories than the greatest military captains. And though a 
rival excitement has for months engrossed all minds and 
occupied all thoughts, this is not a wholly unpropitious time 
to enforce on men the claims of religion. We are a chas- 
tened Nation. The hand of God has touched us. And this 
hour of great national sorrow may furnish a fitting occasion 
on which to press men to turn to God. Subdued by a sense 
of helplessness, and admonished by the perils of the times, 
to whom should the Nation look for help but God, and what 
better occasion can the Church have for lifting the Nation 
up to God? 

THE) REBBlvLlON. (August 30, 1862.) 

The great rebellion has been in operation consid- 
erably over a year. Has the determination of the 
loyal people to suppress the rebelHon faltered? So 
far from that, the purpose is constantly becoming- 
stronger, to maintain the national integrity against 
any and all enemies, whether domestic or foreign, and 
also to prosecute the war with greater vigor and more 
terrible earnestness. y\n innnense mass-meeting- of 



252 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



loyal citizens was held in New York on the 15th of 
July last, which was as large as that of April, 186 1, 
if not larger. At the recent gathering the resolutions 
of 1861 were reaffirmed. Others were adopted ex- 
pressive of the conviction that this war is waged only 
for the overthrow of disloyalty; that no claims or privi- 
leges beyond those conferred by the Constitution upon 
our fathers are sought; that the establishment and en- 
forcement of the Constitution in all its vigor, not a line 
erased or interpolated, is the great object sought. This 
resolution also was adopted: 

* Resolved, That we are for the Union of the States, the 
integrity of the country, and the maintenance of the Govern- 
ment without any condition or qualification whatever; and 
we will stand by them and uphold them under all circum- 
stances, and at every necessary sacrifice of life or treasure. 

These, and others expressive of confidence in the 
Administration, and of admiration for the valor and 
prowess of our army and navy, were adopted with en- 
tire unanimity ; all showing that so far as New York, 
the moneyed and commercial center of the Nation, is 
concerned, the great heart of the people beats true to 
the Government through the darkest and wildest 
storms of revolution. 

This resolution, adopted with the utmost enthusi- 
asm, has the ring of the true metal: 

Resolved, That, steadily pursuing the wise policy of our 
fathers, we never mean to interfere in the internal conflicts 
of foreign States; but here, beneath this outstretched sky, in 
the presence of Almighty God, and of one another, we pledge 
our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor, never to aban- 
don this struggle while there remains a traitor in the land, 
and that any armed intervention by any foreign Power in 
our present domestic affliction shall prove the signal for the 
spirit of Liberty to commence its triumphant march through 
Europe. 



1 



PUTTING DOWN THE REBELLION, 253 



While the moderation, conciUation, and wisdom 
of the Administration have eUcited the approval of all 
conservative men, yet true and loyal men in the border 
States, the soldiers in the field, and the great mass of 
the loyal people feel that the v^ar should hereafter be 
more vigorously and decisively prosecuted; that the 
day for temporizing and for gentle measures has 
passed. To this conclusion, it is beUeved, the Presi- 
dent, Congress, and the people are rapidly coming 
v^ith great unanimity. That noble patriot, Andrew 
Johnson, uttered the following in a Fourth of July 
speech at Nashville: 

Some professed to entertain a holy horror of coercion. 
Why, force and error have coerced the South into her present 
position, and nothing but force and power will bring her 
back. You were coerced by the violence and force of seces- 
sion, and the spirit of secession must be subdued and con- 
trolled by force. The strong arm of the Government must 
be bared, and justice must do her work. We may as well 
understand the fact first as last, and go to work rationally. 
Without force and power to coerce, we have no Government. 
How have matters gone on heretofore? Why, when the 
Union army came, the first to run to it for protection and 
privileges were Secessionists, who got promises of protec- 
tion if they would remain neutral. On the other hand, the 
poor Union men were terrified with threats of vengeance 
if the rebel army should return. The Secessionist was pro- 
tected by the Union army, and was equally confident of pro- 
tection should the rebel army return; so he felt perfectly 
easy. The Union man dreaded utter ruin should a reverse 
occur, and was filled with perpetual alarm. So, under this 
strange policy the rebel had two guarantees, and the Union 
man but one. It was time this was stopped. The time has 
arrived when treason must be made odious, and traitors im- 
poverished. These men have used their prosperity to destroy 
the Government, and fill the land with bankruptcy and dis- 
tress; they have given their wealth freely to aid rebellion 
and treason, and drench the land in fraternal blood, and 
crush out the last vestige of liberty, and their property should 
be taken from them to defray the expenses of the war. They 



254 SIXTY- OXE YEARS OF ITIXERAXT WORK. 



are the guilty ones; they are the real criminals. The pooi 
have been deluded and dragged into this war, while the 
authors and instigators, who have kept up the war by their 
money and contributions, have skulked at home and de- 
manded the protection of the Federal Government. Why, 
many of these elegant gentlemen rebelled to get rid of paying 
their Northern debts. If a miserable, crippled Negro, worth 
five hundred dollars, was stolen, the Government must be 
overthrown if the Negro could not be recovered; but 3'our 
polite, fastidious, and chivalrous merchant can go among 
what he calls, ''blue-bellied Yankees," buy their goods on 
credit, and then, when pay-day comes, tell his creditors in 
the North, "O, 1 have seceded!" It is an outrageous crime 
to steal a Negro; but it is gentlemanly financiering to de- 
fraud a Northern creditor of fift}' or a hundred thousand 
dollars. 

THB RBBELI.ION. (Jui^y 5, 1862.} 

Three questions force themselves, at this moment, 
upon the American people; viz., A\'ill this rebellion 
soon be suppressed? Will its suppression restore 
union and harmony between the sections now discord- 
ant and belligerent? Will the present rebellion leave 
the Union stronger or weaker than it was before? 

The first question hardly needs an argument or a 
repl}^ The affirmative answer comes up from millions 
of loyal men and women. Only the secession sympa- 
thizers in Europe, and those in the States whose sym- 
pathies are with the insurrectionists, pretend to dissent 
from the unanimous conclusion of loyal Americans 
that the end of rebellion and insurrection draws near. 
Already Southern papers and insurrectionists are full 
of apprehension and alarm, at the gloomy future which 
spreads itself out like an angry cloud along their 
horizon. The reasons for the affirmative response 
may be briefly stated, thus: 

(i) The r'lghi is on the side of the Government. 
The object of the Government was in the beginning 



CRUSHING THE REBELLION. 



to defend itself, and suppress the rebellion. To that 
single purpose, President, Congress, and the army 
have adhered with unvarying constancy. This fidelity 
to the one purpose is one of the most marked and re- 
markable characteristics of the war. True, Fremont 
and Phelps and Hunter have seemed to deviate from 
this object, and to convert the war into an emancipa- 
tion measure; but their acts were disavowed by their 
superiors, and these instances proved the exceptions 
and not the rule. Is it not right for a Government as 
good and as beneficent as ours to defend itself against 
armed assassins? Is it too much to expect that in such 
a conflict God will be on our side? Has riot Provi- 
dence already shown himself to be in our behalf? 

(2) In this case, the right is supported by a large, 
well-organized, well disciplined and officered army ; 
an army brave, invincible, and fighting intelligently for 
a principle. Its superior in these respects has never 
been seen. 

(3) The resources of the Government are equal to 
all the demands of the exigency. Money, men, fer- 
tility of invention, are all with the Federal side. 

(4) The history of the war thus far gives presage 
of its early and complete triumph. Missouri, Arkan- 
sas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Western and Eastern Vir- 
ginia, North Carolina, Florida, have been wrested from 
the polluting presence of treason. Everywhere, in 
those and other portions of the country, our Starry 
Banner floats, in proof of past, and in pledge of future, 
progress and victory. 

(5) The momentum of our previous success in the 
conduct of the war presages the more certain and rapid 
conquests awaiting our forces. As our momentum 
increases, in the same or a greater ratio the dismay 
and demoralization of the enemy are augmented. 



256 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

The answer of the second question is similar to that 
of the first, for the following reasons: 

(1) The people of the South have never, intelli- 
gently and at heart, been in favor of this Rebellion. 

(2) If they had been, the oppressions under which 
they have suffered, and which were imposed by the 
leaders of this horrid conspiracy^ such as conscription 
and the spoliation of their estates, would have detached 
their sympathies. 

(3) The moderation and justice of our armies will 
undeceive multitudes who were deluded with the be- 
lief that "Beauty and Booty" were the design of the 
''Northern invaders," as the Union army were desig- 
nated. 

(4) The rapturous acclamations of the people, as 
with tears and shouts they hailed and welcomed the 
returning flag of our Union, prove that their old love 
for the national colors was not dead, but only stifled ; 
and that it will burn again as before, except that the 
patriotism rekindled will be stronger and more incor- 
ruptible. Yes, we shall again be one people, with a 
common sympathy, a common patriotism, and a com- 
mon destiny, the cords of national unity and peace 
confirmed and established. 

These answers to the first two inquiries forestall 
that to the last. This Nation will be stronger and 
better than before. Our enhanced Federal consoli- 
dation and our success will not only preclude the hope 
and the attempt of any future insurrection, but it will 
at once raise the Government above the power of any 
foreign nation. The United States will not only stand 
abreast with Great Britain, France, or Russia; she will 
rank any one of them single, and equal all of them 
combined. But the great national debt, it is feared 
by some, will cripple our energies and impoverish our 
people. The fear is unfounded. The United States 



THE nation's strength. 



257 



were never so strong in the elements of material wealth 
and greatness as now, while conducting this memo- 
rable campaign; and when it is fully over, the Nation 
will shake off this incumbrance as the lion shakes the 
dew of the morning from his mane, and start forward 
upon a career of progress unprecedented in the his- 
tory of the world. It is sad to think of the tens of thou- 
sands of noble lives that have been sacrificed upon the 
altar of liberty and law, and of the still greater num- 
bers who bear, and who will bear, the scars of terrible 
battle. Yet these will embalm the more in the affec- 
tions of a delivered and great people the cause which 
demanded not in vain such a libation. Dark as has 
been the stormcloud which has spent its fury upon 
us, already the bow of promise spans the heavens, and 
beyond the present hour may be seen the clear azure 
and the shining sun. 
17 



I 



CHAPTER XIX. 

BEFORE Oregon was admitted as a State in 
1857, even before she was organized as a Ter- 
ritory by Congress, which occurred August 14, 
1848, emigrants in considerable numbers from CaU- 
fornia and the Atlantic States had settled in Oregon. 
In 1834, Oregon had received an accession to her 
population, made up of missionaries sent thither 
by the Missionary Society of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. There were Revs. Jason and Daniel 
Tee, and probably one or two others, who sailed 
to Oregon by sea around Cape Horn. This action 
was probably stimulated by the appearance m St. 
Louis, some years before, of three Flathead In- 
dians from beyond the Rocky Mountains, inquiring 
for the white man's God and the white man's Bible. 
The event created great interest throughout the 
United States. After going to Oregon and sur- 
veying the situation, Mr. Lee found it impossible 
to plant Indian missions in Oregon unless a re- 
enforcement of men and women should be sent, 
who would be able to procure subsistence in Ore- 
gon, and who should have within themselves the 
power to produce the necessary provisions for sus- 
taining life in that distant and unfurnished country. 
The Indians could not feed the newcomers. In- 
deed, it was all the Indians could do, by hunting 
and fishing, to provide their own means of sub- 
sistence, by hunting the game in that country, and 

258 



METHODIST MISSION COLONY. 



259 



by gathering food from the rivers, which abounded 
m salmon. 

The Hudson Bay Company had possession of 
Oregon, with their stockade forts and trading fac- 
tories, in which they exchanged goods for peltries 
and furs. They also produced from the soil, and 
from flocks and herds of poultry and cattle, some 
of the means of sustentation, and these they would 
not share with the missionaries, whereby they 
might raise those things themselves. It was sup- 
posed that the Hudson Bay Company, with these 
accessions, would be able to maintain by occupa- 
tion the British right to Oregon, which then in- 
cluded all that was later known as Oregon, Wash- 
ington, Idaho, and Montana. 

Jason Lee returned to the States from Oregon, 
taking with him two Flathead Indians, with whom 
he traversed the country, making speeches on Ore- 
gon and displaying his Indian boys. His presence 
and appeals produced a strong impression upon all 
the people, especially upon the Methodists. Large 
contributions of money were made, and a consider- 
able re-enforcement of mechanics and farmers and 
teachers and millwrights sailed for Oregon in the 
good ship Lausanne in 1839, via Cape Horn and 
the Sandwich Islands. They arrived in Oregon in 
. 1840, when the mission colony numbered fifty-two 
adults and twenty children. It was current rumor 
that the United States assisted the outfit, by con- 
tributions from the secret service fund, and that this 
was done with a view of furnishing the claim to 
Oregon, as a part of the national domain, by the 



26o SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

argument from occupation. It is generally be- 
lieved that these early residents, colonists, and mis- 
sionaries were potent factors in determining the 
settlement of the north boundary contention in 
favor of the United States. 

A recent attempt has been made to claim for 
Dr. Alarcus Whitman, a Presbyterian missionary 
to Oregon, the credit for having determined the 
right of the United States to Oregon. The claim, 
however, has not adequate support from existing 
facts. Rev. H. K. Hines, D. D., one of the later 
missionaries to Oregon, has, in my judgment, fully 
established the claim of Jason Uee to the high 
honor which has been sought for Dr. Whitman. 
Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife, Rev. H. H. 
Spalding and his wife, and W. H. Gray, crossed the 
Plains in 1836, two years after the arrival of Jason 
and Daniel Uee. Mr. Lee's re-enforcements 
reached Oregon in 1840. Those of Dr. Whitman 
four years later. Dr. Hines, in a very able and fair 
historical article in the Methodist Reviezv, and in 
papers since published in the Pacific Christian Ad- 
vocate, has conclusively supported the superior 
claims of Jason Tee and his associates over those 
of Dr. Whitman to the high honor claimed for Dr. 
Whitman. 

The Hudson Bay Company would not furnish 
sheep or cattle or horses or poultry to the mission- 
aries. Mr. Lee went to California and procured 
them, whereby flocks and herds and poultry were 
grown, and thus the missionaries had meat for food. 
In 1843 t^^^ settlers in the ^^^illamette Valley num- 



OREGON TERRITORY ORGANIZED. 26 1 



bered two hundred and forty-two. Steps were 
taken to secure a Government, by a choice of offi- 
cers and the organization of a Provisional Govern- 
ment for Oregon. George Abernethy, a layman, 
and one of the re-enforcemnt of 1840, was elected 
the provisional governor. Five years later the 
United States Congress, August 14, 1848, organ- 
ized the Territory of Oregon. The Act included 
the Donation Land Law, by which every white set- 
tler in Oregon, being there as such, and afterwards, 
until December i, 1851, was entitled to three hun- 
dred and twenty acres of land, if a single man; and 
if a married man, his wife was also entitled to a like 
quantity. That law also gave to every missionary 
station then existing in Oregon six hundred and 
forty acres of land, including the site of the mission. 

The northwestern boundary-line was, however, 
long a vexed question between the two Govern- 
ments. Great Britain claimed Oregon from the 
30th degree of north latitude to the 60th degree 
of north latitude. The United. States claimed Ore- 
gon by virtue of the entrance of Captain Gray into 
the Columbia River in 1792. We also held that 
Oregon was included in the sale of Louisiana by 
France in 1803. In 1818 a treaty of joint occupa- 
tion was made between the two Governments, 
which left these lines as a vexed question. In 1846 
the treaty fixing the northern boundary-line of the 
United States at 49 degrees north latitude was con- 
cluded between the United States and Great Brit- 
ain, James Buchanan and Mr. Pakenham the com- 
missioners between the contracting powers. It was 



262 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

ratified the same year. Great Britain wanted the 
whole island of Vancouver, which the 49th parallel 
of north latitude bisected into nearly equal halves. 
The Gulf of Georgia divides Vancouver Island from 
the mainland. At the 49th parallel the gulf be- 
tween the island and the mainland is quite narrow. 
The boundary-line at the point of intersection of 
the island is in terms as follows : ''Thence (westerly) 
on the 49th degree of north latitude to the center 
of the Gulf of Georgia, and thence by the main ship 
channel to the Straits of Fuca, and thence through 
the Straits of Fuca to the sea." The part of the 
Gulf of Georgia south of 49 degrees north latitude 
is an immense body of water, with very many isl- 
ands, large and small, and a shore-line of twenty- 
eight hundred miles. There are two channels 
through the Gulf of Georgia, viz. : The Canal de 
Haro and the Straits of Rosario. The former is 
plain, short, and direct to the sea. It hugs Van- 
couver Island right around to the ocean. A ship 
turned loose on the 49th parallel would follow the 
channel current without guide or pilot out to the 
sea. The channel called the Straits of Rosario is 
long, crooked, difficult, and tmsafe. It hugs the 
shore of the bay, throwing all the islands in the 
Gulf of Georgia south of the 49th parallel into 
British America; whereas, the object in deflecting 
the line on the east side of Vancouver Island was 
to throw that island into British America, the 
Straits of Rosario line would throw hundreds of 
other islands south of 49th parallel to Great Brit- 
ain. We claimed all those islands in the Gulf of 



NORTH BOUNDARY OF WASHINGTON. 



263 



Georgia, maintaining, and riglitly, that the Canal 
de Haro was the boundary-hne around Vancouver 
Island. The Legislature of Washington Territory 
formed the county of Whatcom, to include the 
islands in the Gulf of Georgia. The island of San 
Juan hes on the south and east side of the Canal 
de Haro, and the island of San Juan was then in- 
cluded in the county of Whatcom. 

An employee of the Hudson Bay Company had 
squatted on the northwest end of San Juan with 
a flock of sheep. A Yankee settler had taken up 
his claim on the other end of the same island. His 
stock consisted of hogs. The hogs had trespassed 
upon the grounds of the Britisher; or, vice versa, 
the sheep of the Britisher had trespassed upon the 
lands of the Yankee. Both men wxre tenacious 
and plucky; neither would yield. They would en- 
force their several claims. The Britisher had re- 
enforced himself with an armed company of ma- 
rines. Brother Jonathan had re-enforced himself 
by a company of United States infantry, under 
com.mand of Captain Pickett, later known as Gen- 
eral Pickett of the Confederate army. Thus they 
confronted one another with shotted guns. The 
slightest mismove might have precipitated war. 
This w^as the situation in the summer of 1859. 
President Buchanan sent General Winfield Scott 
to negotiate a truce, until King William of Prus- 
sia should decide which of these two channels, 
the Canal de Haro or the Straits of Rosario, was 
the true l^oundary-line between Great Britain and 
the United States. A few years ago he decided that 



264 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

the Canal de Haro was the boundary-Hne. When 
I saw General Scott on his visit to Oregon upon 
that mission, he was one of the finest-looking men 
I ever saw. He was somewhat corpulent, but not 
excessively so. He must have been some years 
past seventy ; probably seventy-three. His express- 
ive blue eyes, and his ruddy, blond complexion, 
his style, and poise, deeply impressed me. I pub- 
lished the following sketch of him about the time 
when he was retired, by his own request, from act- 
ive military life. He was brevet lieutenant-general 
from January, 1841, to November i, 1861 : 

GBNBRAI, SCOTT. 

Our readers will have noticed that General Win- 
field Scott, by his own request, has been placed, by 
order of the President, upon the retired list, and thus, 
after many years of service and honor, he ceases to be 
the commander-in-chief of the military forces of the 
United States. 

General Scott was born the 13th of June, 1786. 
He is, therefore, now over seventy-six years of age. 
He studied law in Richmond, Virginia but through 
the influence of a friend obtained. May 8, 1808, a cap- 
taincy in the light artillery. In 1809 he was ordered to 
New Orleans, where he gave offense to his command- 
ing ofificer, Wilkinson, by his severe military criticisms, 
and was tried by court-martial upon a charge of em- 
bezzlement, and, second, that he used disrespectful 
language towards his commanding officer. He was 
acquitted of the first charge; but upon the second he 
was sentenced to suspension from rank and pay for 
one year. He spent the year at the house of Benjamin 
Watkins Leigh in pursuing military studies, and prob- 



GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT. 



265 



ably there laid the foundation of his future fame. In 
July, 18 1 2, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and 
was stationed at Black Rock. On the 13th of October 
he was taken prisoner at the disastrous battle of 
Queenstow^n Heights; not, however, till he had shown 
of what he was capable when his blood was up. After 
his exchange he joined General Dearborn as his adju- 
tant, in which capacity he was of great use in organiz- 
ing the several departments of the army. He led the 
advance when Fort George was taken by storm, and 
tore down the British colors with his own hands. In 
July, 18 1 3, Scott was promoted to the command of 
two regiments, resigning his adjutancy. In September 
he burnt the barracks and public stores at Toronto, 
took eleven armed boats, considerable ammunition, 
and several cannon. The year 1813, upon the whole, 
closed disastrously to the American arms. But Scott's 
name loomed up as the coming man, and in March, 
1 8 14, he received the appointment of brigadier-general. 
The army placed in quarters were drilled for more 
than three months by Scott himself, and were perfected 
in all the evolutions of war. On the 3d of July, Scott 
took possession of Fort Erie, and on the 5th was 
fought the battle of Chippewa, on an open plain. With 
hardly equal numbers, our brave army met the veterans 
of England, and displayed to the world that we were 
of the old race, and that the blood of Crecy, Poitiers, 
of Agincourt and of Blenheim, tingled in our veins. 
Twenty days after was fought the battle of Niagara — 
the most bloody, determined engagement which ever 
took place on this continent, and, in proportion to 
numbers engaged, the most bloody of modern warfare. 
While Chippewa and Tundy's Lane are remembered, 
we shall hear of no intervention on the part of Eng- 
land. If Scott had done nothing more than given us 
Chippewa and Niagara, it should render him immortal. 



266 SIXTV-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

They were the prelude of future greatness. They set- 
tled, quite as much as Webster, the northeastern boun- 
dary question, the Oregon question, the jMosquito 
question, and will have an ever-living, abiding influ- 
ence in all questions yet to come. 

We have not time to mention the services of Gen- 
eral Scott from the time he left Niagara, wounded, 
to the present hour. It is known of all men. His 
arduous, patriotic toil; his wisdom in the South Caro- 
lina troubles, in the various disputes with England; 
his triumphant march on the capital of the Monte- 
zumas, worthy of Marlborough or Turenne; his wise 
foresight in our present troubles in advising Mr. Buch- 
anan to increase the force in the Southern forts. But 
in our opinion, the service which he rendered his 
country, high above all others — higher by far than 
the glories of Niagara, Cerro Gordo, or Chapultepec; 
higher, brighter, purer, more enduring than the most 
resplendent military achievement — was the shield which 
his great name afforded against the assaults of Con- 
federate traitors, banded together to overthrow our 
Constitution, to trample on our laws, dissever our 
Union, and throw the pall of. anarchy over the fairest 
fabric of Constitutional freedom the world has ever 
known. All honor to the gallant Massachusetts vol- 
unteers, who again rendered illustrious the 19th of 
April ; all honor to the New York Seventh, to all the 
patriotic hosts who rushed to the defense of the be- 
leagured Capital, — but had Scott not been there to 
regulate and arrange, to create and discipline, we have 
little doubt we should to-day have to mourn over the 
burning embers of our smoking Capitol. Go, then, 
leader of our armies; thou hast led us. to victory and 
honor; thou hast saved us in the hour of our peril, 
and as thou descendest into the dark night of the 
tomb thou wilt be followed by the best wishes of a 



FIRST MISSIOX HOUSE IX OREGON, 267 



still great, happy, free, exulting Nation. Your name 
aiid ours are forever united. Washington first, Scott 
second; who shall be third? 

When this sketch was written, Lincoln had not 
yet achieved the glory which afterwards garlanded 
him. Grant and Garfield were then unknown 
quantities. 

OUR FIRST MISSION HOUSE IN OREGON. 

Our missionaries in Oregon having, in Sep- 
tember, 1834, selected the spot on which to erect 
a comfortable habitation, like pioneer settlers, as 
well as teachers of our holy religion, they began 
to clear the land and build a log house. They 
labored under great inconveniences, as must be 
supposed. Their oxen were but half-tamed, their 
tools few and needing to be put in order, and their 
best shelter, after the fatigue of the day, was a can- 
vas tent. To add to their trials, a violent storm of 
wind and rain visited them in the midst of their 
labor, wetting their efi'ects and flooding their 
works. But all this they submitted to patiently, 
and in a few weeks their tabernacle in this wilder- 
ness was set up in the name of the great God, whom 
this dark corner of the earth had never known, and 
was so far completed as to shelter thern^ from the 
approaching rainy season. It was, doubtless, to 
eyes accustomed to look upon the elegant man- 
sions of civilized society, but a rude hut. Its di- 
mensions were thirty feet in length and twenty feet 
in width, separated into two rooms by .a partition 
in the middle. Rough doors split from the logs 



268 SIXTV-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



and hung on wooden hinges, a plank floor, a chim- 
ney made of sticks and Hned with clay, and four 
windows, the sashes made in part with a jack- 
knife, constituted its finishing. Its furniture con- 
sisted of a chair, a table, and stools, all of domestic 
manufacture. Their cows afforded them milk, and 
to the provisions of their outfit were added a little 
flour from Vancouver, and occasionally game from 
the Indians. Thus provided, they commenced 
clearing the land to plant for their future suste- 
nance, to teach the natives, and preach to the emi- 
grants, as opportunities were presented. 

The Methodist missionaries who went to Ore- 
gon in 1834 had much to do in determining the 
question of Oregon's entering into the national 
domain. In 1846 the slogan of the Democratic 
party, when Mr. Polk ran upon that ticket, was 
''54 degrees 40 minutes, or fight." The treaty be- 
tween Great Britain and the United States fixed 
the 49th degree of north latitude as our boundary. 
But we probably should not have obtained even 
that if Oregon had not been in possession by the 
emigrations induced to seek Oregon because the 
Methodists had pioneered the way. 



Reconstruction. 



1 



CHAPTER XX. 



IN asking a year's absence from the Oregon Con- 
ference, the chief object was, that I might put in 
some work for the Boys in Blue at the front. I 
should have been in the service of the country as a 
soldier, only that I was so situated that I could not 
well leave the work placed upon me by my election 
as editor of a rehgious paper in a new and distant 
part of the country, however strong my inclination 
might have been, without unfaithfulness to a trust 
w^hich had been accepted by me. 

When my nine years of service on the Pacific 
Christian Advocate were up, I declined a re-election. 
I placed my wife and our adopted daughter at a 
friend's in Madison, New York, and made my way 
to City Point, in Virginia, in January following, 
as a delegate of the Christian Commission. The 
Sanitary Commission and the Christian Conimis^ 
sion were kindred voluntary associations for help- 
ing the soldiers in the field. The former supplied 
the soldiers with proper physical care and pro- 
vision, thus supplementing the army rations with 
delicacies and comforts, especially in the time of 
military engagements, and then furnishing nursing 
and care to the sick and wounded soldiers. The 
latter also applied physical nursing and care to the 
sick and wounded men at the front, and added to 
these physical ministrations those of a moral and 
spiritual character. While the country was heavily 

271 



272 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

taxed for the war expenses, the people of the 
United States could not resist the patriotic and 
philanthropic impulse to send additional provisions 
and help to the Union soldiers. In this behalf, ten 
millions of dollars were contributed by each of these 
benevolent associations to this humane purpose, by 
means of the ladies and gentlemen co-operating 
in this behalf. The Christian Commission raised 
as much in their work for the moral and spiritual 
welfare and comfort of the Union soldiers. 

The two months I spent as a delegate of the 
Christian Commission, while involving some hard- 
ships and discomforts, nevertheless yielded a rich 
compensation. I preached to soldiers two or three 
evenings each week, and on Sundays once or twice 
each Sunday. Many of them heard their last ser- 
mon on earth from my lips. Some of the incidents 
were of thrilling interest, and all of them were sadly 
enjoyable. The reader will share somewhat in the 
pleasure I found in ministering to my fellow- 
patriots in their suffering and sore need on the field, 
in the amputating-room, and in the hospital, by 
re-traversing the service as here outlined, or by my 
adducing of excerpta from my daily memoranda 
of those weeks and months of this voluntary service. 

General Grant extended his left line some three 
or four miles to Hatcher's Run. This was some 
five or six miles up the railroad from City Point. 
Several of us went up the first day of the engage- 
ment, and stopped at the railroad station there, to 
attend upon some soldiers who had been wounded 
in the battle, and brought down from the lines in 



WOUNDED SOLDIERS. 



ambulances to be placed in cars, if able to endure 
the trip, and to be transported by rail to City Point 
hospital. Those unable to endure transportation 
were to remain in tents for treatment, as their con- 
dition might seem to require. It was a stinging 
cold February night. The wounded boys had been 
temporarily treated, and sent down to the railroad. 
We gave them hot coffee and nourishing food, and 
placed them in the cars. I carried one bright 
young lad, and laid him gently in the car upon 
straw provided for the purpose. After laying him 
down, I saw in his overcoat breast-pocket a small 
Bible. Said I, ''Soldier, may I look at your book?" 
He nodded consent. I opened the Bible, and read 
the name inserted on the fly-leaf. The inscription 
ran : ''To my dear son, Edward , from his lov- 
ing mother: My son, make this book the guide of 
your daily life." I said to him, "Have you complied 
with your mother's request?" "O yes," was the 
reply. "Do you love this blessed Book?" He said, 
"Yes, indeed." "Do you love the Lord?" He 
made answer: "Yes, I do. He has been with me 
every day since I left home and came into the army. 
The Lord is very good, indeed, to me. He has 
never forsaken me." 

I found a man in the ambulance awaiting some 
one or more to carry him to the car. He had been 
severely wounded. He had lost much blood, and 
he was suffering very greatly. I felt his pulse. It 
was quite weak, denoting prostration. I gave him 
some hot coffee, and put some cordial tonic into 
it, hoping to rally and revive him before he should 
18 



274 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

be put into the car. He was an Irishman. He in- 
quired, ''Is it a chaplain yees are?" no !" said I ; 
"I am a minister, and I came down in the service 
of the Christian Commission to the field, to help 
you in your need, and to show you that you are 
not forgotten nor neglected by us." ''Well ! well !" 
said he; "I don't know much about that society; 
but I do say from my heart, God bless all the Hkes 
o' yees." I heard of another Irishman who was 

dying, and Dr. M told him of Jesus and his 

love, and prayed for him in his last moments. He 
gave him his blessing in this form : "May God 
Almight}^ bliss ye and kape ye, and whin ye die may 
ivery blissed hair iv your head be a lighted candle 
to light your soul through purgatory !" 

After the cars were filled and the train had 
started, I went into one of the tents. A soldier was 
just brought in, who was shot in the neck. He was 
unconscious. I assisted in holding him up in the 
cot until they could get off his clothes to examine 
his wounds. The tent w^as quite warm; the smell 
of the blood and the grasp of my hand by the suf- 
ferer overcame me. I called an orderly to take 
my place, and Avent out into the cold and lay down 
upon my back to prevent fainting away. I recov- 
ered, and resumed the service for several hours, 
going from tent to tent and from ambulance to 
ambulance, to render help as needed. The next 
day I went up to the battle-field. I took my place 
in the rear of the lines, to assist with stretchers 
to carry wounded men to ambulances, to be thus 
conve3'ed to the field hospital. The bullets sang 



IN THE FIELD HOSPITAL. 



in the trees above me, and the leaves clipped by the 
shots were all the time falling. 

In the afternoon I was assigned to duty at the 
field hospital. We were very busy carrying 
wounded men on stretchers into and from the hos- 
pital. One noble young man, a colonel, had been 
struck on the knee by an exploding shell, shatter- 
ing the knee. His limb required amputation well 
up towards the thigh. His leg was taken off, and 
he was placed on a stretcher, and carried upon it 
six or seven miles to the general hospital at the 
Point by relays of carriers. The case was pathetic. 
His term of enlistment had expired the day before. 
Some days after this I went into the hospital at 
City Point. His wound had sloughed. The artery 
had lost the Hgature. The limb had been again 
cut off higher up, and again it had sloughed. The 
orderly was holding the artery closed by his thumb. 
The soldier was delirious. He was muttering hiS 
commands. After holding the artery for some 
time, the surgeon said, "Let go." In a very few 
minutes he had passed away. 

In the field hospital at the close of the day 
there was a large and ghastly pile of dismembered 
legs and arms to be seen. The field hospital was an 
old-fashioned Viriginia house, with a large hall in 
the center, and on one side the hall was the parlor, 
converted into an operating-room. Over the man- 
tel was an engraving of Bishop Porteus's "Court 
of Death." The floor was slippery with human 
blood, and that picture was in keeping with the 
gory scene of the amputating-room. On the other 



276 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

side of the hall was the residence room. At each 
end of the house, and on its outside, was the inevi- 
table chimney. During the day there was a lull 
in the fighting, and in which no victims were 
brought in. The surgeon had opened the piano, 
which stood in the hall, an old, decayed instrument, 
whose brassy, tinkling strings were unmusical and 
discordant. An orderly was found who could play. 
The women of the family were brought to the door, 
and treated to Union music. The roar of the can- 
non had become still. Behind the two white wo- 
men were the black women of the place, as a setting 
for the picture. Led by the instrument, the boys 
sang, "John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the 
grave," and ''We '11 hang Jeff Davis on a sour 
apple-tree." "Well, you '11 have to catch him first," 
said one of the angry women. I learned afterwards 
that the reason for this infliction was this: A 
wounded soldier lay in the yard, who had been dis- 
emboweled by a shell. His dying agonies were 
mocked by the woman, as having deserved and in- 
curred this sufl^ering by invading the sacred soil of 
Virginia. After this musical entertainment the sur- 
geon said he had got even with that inhuman fe- 
male mocker, and he was satisfied. 

During one of those days, Dwight L. Moody 
and I went together into the Negro quarters, and 
he conversed with some of the colored women 
awhile. He asked a Negress, "Aunty, do you think 
the Lord Jesus loves his colored children as much 
as he does the whites?" After a slight pause, she 



•I 



IN THE FIELD HOSPITAL. 



277 



replied, ''Brother, the Lord Jesus loves all his re- 
deemed children." 

My main place of work was in the field hospital. 
I had charge of a ward of two hundred patients. 
Some were suffering from wounds, others from 
fever or pneumonia or some other ailment. I vis- 
ited them twice a day, and sometimes three times. 
I conversed with them, wrote letters for them to 
their friends, and prayed with any of them who 
desired it. Generally, the evening call was the 
most impressive, as usually the deaths occurred 
during the night, and we buried from two to six or 
eight each morning, burying them with military 
honors. 

One evening I passed the cot of a dear young 
soldier with whom I had conversed freely, and who 
had expressed himself as ready to die. I had writ- 
ten for him several times to his parents and sisters. 
As I was about passing his cot he seemed sleeping. 
I laid my hand gently upon his head, and let it rest 
there for some moments. He opened his eyes, and 
fixed their large, expressive look upon me, and 
said: ''That was so sweet. I dreamed it was my 
mother's hand upon my head." The next morn- 
ing his cot was vacant, and I had the sad duty of 
committing his body to the grave, "Earth to earth, 
ashes to ashes, dust to dust." I wrote his mother 
of the safe and beautiful death of her darling son. 

I had a chat with a gray-haired Negro about 
the war. Said I, *'Uncle, I hear it said that you 
colored folks do n't want to be free ; that you would 



278 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

rather be slaves than be free." ''Well," said he, 
''massa, you shall tie up a dog to a tree, and give 
him a long rope. He will go this way as far as he 
can, and then go the other way as far as he can, 
and then set up a dreadful howl. Now," said he, 
''if a dog feels that way to be confined, how do you 
suppose a man would feel to be a slave?" 

Chaplain Hunt told me this story about a col- 
ored man early in the war, before the Negroes had 
been enlisted into the army. He said, ''Uncle, why 
don't you colored people fight?" He replied, "O 
massa, we 's de bone." "Well, but," said the chap- 
lain, "why do n't you colored folks fight?" He 
responded : "Masssa, we 's de bone. You see two 
dogs fighting over de bone; de bone do n't fight." 

I attended a colored meeting in the 24th Army 
Corps. It was a very lively meeting. One person 
had had some difficulty in getting a chance to tell 
his experience. He said : "I done left my wife and 
my two offsprings in Norfolk, on de oder side of 
our lines. Byme-by, when de cruel war is ober, if 
we should never meet again on dis earth, we shall 
meet in heaven. The city up dere have four gates, 
and if she goes in at one gate, and I go in at an- 
other, it will be all the same as if we bof went 
through the same gate." Another man expressed 
himself thus: "Brudders! Lub will gib de debil de 
lockjaw. You think dat am a queer saying, but 
I will prove him. When Massa Jesus converted my 
soul, den I prays to him, and I said, 'O Massa 
Jesus, convert Massa Tom, for he used de lash on 
me heavy because I pray.' Den Massa Tom he was 



PASSING THE LINES. 



279 



converted. He say to me in de mawning, 'Now, 
Jem, it is time to get up and come in to prayers.' 
Befo' it was a crack of de whip and a bitter curse ; 
now de whip is done gone, and Massa Tom he 
prays instead." 

I once went through Grant's lines before Rich- 
mond without a pass. George H. Stuart, the presi- 
dent of our Christian Commission, sent a number 
of Philadelphia gentlemen down to the Point, who 
were greatly interested in the work of the Christian 
Commission, and they wished to go through 
Grant's lines. Rev. Erastus Smith, the gentleman 
in charge of our work at the front, desired me to 
take the company through the lines. But our 
passes had all been sent up to General Ord's head- 
quarters for renewal, and none of us had the pass- 
word. We entered the Christian Commission am- 
bulance, which had our name painted upon it in 
large, white letters ; and then, besides, I carried the 
badge of all delegates of the Christian Commission 
upon my right coat lapel. When we reached the 
sentinel he demanded the password. I told him 
the situation : ''These gentlemen must go back to 
Philadelphia to-day. They are great contributors 
to our funds, and brimming over with loyalty. You 
see this badge, and you see that is the Christian 
Commission ambulance." "Well," says he, "it is 
in violation of my orders." Said I, "Can not you 
speak to your chief, the officer in command?" He 
did so, and we went through without interruption. 
He said, "You must take the risk about getting 
through when you return." When I returned an- 



28o SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

other sentinel was on guard. He refused to let me 
pass, and we could not get through until a messen- 
ger was sent to General Ord's quarters. Then, 
when I gave him the password, we got through. 

My service in the army was exceedingly fasci- 
nating. I would not be without it upon any con- 
sideration. I was in only the one battle I have de- 
scribed. War is a dreadful scourge. Patriotism 
and philanthropy have large scope and verge when 
war lifts its horrid front. These virtues shine con- 
spicuously on the wrinkled visage of bloody war. 
They show that, dreadful as war is, it has its offsets 
in the charities which keep step with the army, and 
display and dispense their divine, angelic healing 
and help amid the shadows and bloody orgies of 
war. I shall ever be thankful for the opportunity 
which God gave me to minister for him to my fel- 
low-citizens in the field of strife and death. And I 
shall all the more appreciate the sterling patriotism 
displayed, both in the field and by the citizenship 
of the country generally, in sustaining the army. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



THIS chapter opens with a new departure. My 
transfer to East Tennessee seems to me quite as 
providential as any other part of my checkered Ufe. 
My intense sympathy with the Union cause during 
the war led me greatly to admire the patriotism 
of the people in this Switzerland of the United 
States. The heroism of the Waldensians and the 
Albigenses on the southern slopes of the Alps, 
during centuries of bloody papal persecution, al- 
ways kindled my liveliest admiration. To them I 
Hkened the East Tennesseeans and the Bridge- 
burners, who took this method to impede the trans- 
portation of Confederate troops and munitions of 
war. This they did deliberately and fearlessly on 
peril of their lives, and at the cost of their lives. I 
have often wept while reading the story of their 
intensely loyal deeds, and the dreadful work they 
so bravely, and even cheerfully, accepted. 

I decided that if Providence would so direct, 
it would give me great pleasure to serve them as a 
minister. I had tempting offers to stay in Oregon. 
I was offered the editorship of the Pacific Christian 
Advocate. I was invited to become the pastor of 
Union Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Louis, 
and to re-enter my old Conference, and become 
pastor of some of my former cliarges there : Bing- 
hamton, N. Y., and Wi]kesl)arre, Pa. I decided 
to come East, and get nearer the Hub. Oregon 

281 



282 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

was on the periphery. All my relatives and those 
of my wife were three or four thousand miles away. 
I could not return to visit them, without incurring 
several hundred dollars' expenses. During the war 
my heart was with the flag and the Union it repre- 
sented. I chafed under the inexorable conditions 
which compelled my stay so far away from the cen- 
ter of things. When my eight years of General 
Conference editorship on the Advocate were up, I 
declined a re-election, as already stated, so that I 
might be more nearly in the midst of events. 

Coming East, many tempting offers were made 
me. Bishop Clark presided in the Oregon Confer- 
ence, when, in October, 1864, I left on a year's 
leave of absence, the first object of which was that 
I might put in service in the field as a delegate of 
the Christian Commission, a purpose which I ex- 
ecuted at my own expense the last two months of 
the war. Bishop Clark expressed the hope that he 
could place me in the South in Church recon- 
struction. Thus things were urged upon my atten- 
tion. I attended the session of the Wyoming Con- 
ference. The other calls were not yet imminent. 
I was readmitted among my earlier Conference as- 
sociates where I began my ministry. I took an 
appointment in Binghamton, where a new and ele- 
gant church was to be built in one of the last 
charges I had filled before going to Oregon. Thus 
and there I wrought for six weeks, telling the 
Binghamton friends that my heart was in the 
South, and that if the call came I would have to 
o1)ey it. Bishop Clark wrote to me, inviting me 



HOLSTON CONFERENCE REORGANIZED. 283 

to accompany him in June to East Tennessee, from 
which an urgent appeal had come from a large 
laymen's and ministers' Convention, asking the 
bishops of the dear old Methodist Episcopal 
Church again to extend over them their sheltering 
wing. I laid his letter before my Official Board, 
and obtained their approval of my going and a 
three weeks' leave of absence. They expressed the 
hope that, however urgent the call for my transfer 
might be, I would decline it, and return to them. 
I went. The spirit of the men was contagious. 
Their story of the sufferings and sacrifices they had 
endured for the dear old flag set my heart all aflame 
to enter into their joy, and assist them in their high 
endeavor. I reported their experiences in the 
Western Christian Advocate within a few days after 
they had so feelingly rehearsed it in the Conference 
love-feast. This report I here insert. I am sure 
this history will give my readers great pleasure, and 
I therefore insert it in full. 

ORGANIZATION OF THE HOLSTON CONFERENCE 
OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Athens, East Tennessee, June /, j86^. 

An eventful day for East Tennessee is this first 
day of June, in the year of grace 1865. It was 
scarcely less so when the loyal East Tennessee Meth- 
odists met in Convention at Knoxville, on the 7th and 
8th days of July, and determined to separate them- 
selves from a Church which had been the apologists 
and defenders of slavery, and the fomenters and sup- 
porters of treason, secession, and rebellion, and con- 



284 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



nect themselves with the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
which had always stood loyally by the Government 
of the United States, and which had also been that 
of their early choice, and upon which God had con- 
tinued to put honor. A large audience assembled 
to-day in the Methodist Episcopal Church at Athens, 
East Tennessee, at nine o'clock. Rev. Bishop Clark 
opened the services by reading the one hundred and 
twenty-sixth Psalm and the fifteenth chapter of St. 
John's Gospel. The hymn 

"And are we yet alive?" 

was sung, after which prayer was ofifered by the 
bishop. The hymn, 

"How beauteous are their feet," 

was sung, and Rev. James Cummings and Dr. Adam 
Poe addressed the Throne of Grace. 

Bishop Clark then remarked in substance: 

"Beloved Brethren, — I am not insensible of 
the responsibilities of this hour, nor of the solemnity 
of the occasion that has called us together. Indulge 
me for a few moments in reference to sundry matters, 
that we may more fully understand ourselves, our re- 
lation to the work before us, and the work we have 
to do. On referring to the records of the Church, 
I find that the Holston Conference was organized in 
the year 1824, with a membership of fourteen thou- 
sand nine hundred and thirty-four, and forty-one min- 
isters. From that time forth there was a gradual 
increase of members, till, in 1840, there was a mem- 
bership of forty thousand and sixty-three, and a min- 
istry of seventy-three. Twenty years ago the last 
entry in the Alinutes of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church of the Holston Conference was made. But, 



BISHOP CLARK'S OPENING TALK. 285 

since that time, what scenes have transpired ! The 
division of the Church, or, rather, the separation of 
a large number of its members from its communion. 
Strange coincidences, or rather providences, some- 
times occur. I see that twenty years ago, according 
to those Minutes, the Holston Conference was to have 
assembled in this place. Before the time arrived the 
separation had occurred. But here, in the very place 
where it disappeared, we meet to reorganize it. I 
do not know whether it was designed [a voice : ''It 
was"] ; but the coincidence is marked. I remember 
with what reluctance the old Holston Conference went 
out of the old Methodist Episcopal Church ; how tena- 
cious the Quarterly Conferences were for adhering. 
And, in connection with this, let me say^ that not only 
the whole Methodist Church, but the whole country, 
has had its eye upon East Tennessee. Your love of 
country was well in harmony with your love of the 
old Church. And we felt deeply that it was not in 
the power of the Government to afford you the pro- 
tection you needed, and that you suffered so much 
from your devotion. But, thanks be to God, deliver- 
ance came to the Nation, and I trust deliverance will 
come also to the Church, and, as you have taken 
your place tmder the Stars and Stripes, that you will 
also take your place under the old banners of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. [A voice : ''We will."] 

"Why am I here at this hour? Last year, after 
our General Conference was held, a Convention, 
largely representing your laity and ministry, was held 
at Knoxville, and there and then you announced the 
purpose to reunite with the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and invoked our aid. During the last year 
we have done what we could to aid you in your work, 
and I am here to organize your Conference. 

"I touch upon a point which I had not intended 



286 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



to name; but it seems proper, from facts which 
have come to my knowledge, with regard to this 
organization. The question has been asked^ 'Why 
reorganize?' The plan that has been suggested is 
that it would be better to leave the Southern Church 
territory undisturbed. Let us leave this ground un- 
touched, and hold a General Conference of both 
Churches, and reunite the Church South, by a simple 
act, to the Methodist Episcopal Church. I do not 
say the proposition has been made in a formal man- 
ner ; for no Conferences have been held in the South- 
ern Church to make it ; but it has been made by prom- 
inent members and ministers of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South, with singular concurrence and 
unanimity. 

cite one reason why I think this proposition, 
that we should stay out of the South, can not be enter- 
tained. If we refuse to respond to these calls from 
East Tennessee and elsewhere — for the calls are from 
different parts of the South — the effect would be to 
leave to the men, who have not been with the Gov- 
ernment of the United States in its fearful struggle 
against rebellion, the work of reorganization of the 
Church. Now, if there is any class of men in the 
South who should take part in the rebuilding of the 
Church and the State, it is the loyal portion. I do 
not feel that we should subject them to this depri- 
vation. 

"The division of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
had one single ground, and that was slavery. You 
can not find any other. No man under heaven can 
find any other. We preach the same gospel, have the 
same organization of Conferences and districts and 
circuits, and the same allotments of labor, and no 
man on the face of the earth can fasten upon any 
other fact than slavery, and that is being taken out 



REASONS FOR REORGANIZATION. 287 

of the way. What reason, then, is there for keeping 
apart? There is none. I can conceive of no other 
than pride of position ; pride of place and power ; the 
maintaining of power in hands that have wielded 
it, other than for the peace and prosperity of the 
Government. 

"Why, again, am I here to organize the Holston 
Conference? At our last General Conference, held in 
May, 1864, provision was made especially for the re- 
ception of ministers of the Church South into the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. It was provided that 
they should be received on the same conditions as 
those on which we receive those from the British and 
Canadian Wesleyan Conferences, with the proviso 
that they should give assurances of their loyalty to 
the United States, and of their agreement with us on 
the subject of slavery. The old Methodist Episcopal 
Church has been, all through this struggle, loyal to 
the United States. All her influences have been un- 
mistakably in this direction. Conferences, ministers, 
and members, almost without exception, have all cast 
their influence on the side of the Government. And 
it was the purpose that, in the reorganization and ex- 
tension of the Church, as we foresaw its extension, 
no element should enter into the Church that should 
disturb its harmony on the question of slavery, or of 
loyalty to the Government. We have no doubt that 
thousands, all through the South, have been led into 
this rebellion by the influences, well-nigh irresistible, 
thrown around them, and that, perhaps, tens of thou- 
sands have been led into it conscientiously. But I 
believe that, with the dawning of the signs of the 
times, there must come a conviction that they were 
mistaken, were in the wrong, and, with that con- 
viction, if they are good men and true men, that they 
will be with us in these matters of loyalty and slavery. 



288 SIXTY-ONE YEARS- OF ITINERANT WORK. 

And I can not see any other reason for their remain- 
ing aloof from our Church, unless it be the want of 
loyalty, or adhesion to a system now nearly defunct. 

"In addition to the provisions for receiving min- 
isters, the General Conference authorized the organ- 
ization of Conferences in the South, when, in the 
judgment of the bishops, they should deem it im- 
portant or proper; and at a meeting of the bishops 
they saw that the time had fully come to organize 
a Conference in East Tennessee. 

"In pursuance of these facts I am here. I recog- 
nize the following ministers as comprising the Holston 
Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church : W. C. Daily, G. A. Gowan, R. H. Guthrie, 
transferred from the Kentucky Conference ; T. S. 
Stivers, transferred from the Ohio Conference; 
Thomas H. Pearne, transferred from the Oregon Con- 
ference ; and J. F. Spence, transferred from the Cin- 
cinnati Conference." 

The bishop then announced that, in determining 
the status of the ministers applying for admission, he 
should take as his guide the published Minutes of 
the Holston Conference of the Methodist Church, 
South, for 1862. Since then no Minutes had been 
published, nor had any session of the Conference been 
held, other than a gathering of the treasonable por- 
tion of it within the rebel lines. 

Profound interest and considerable sensibility were 
manifested during the address of the bishop. Brother 
Spence, at the request of the bishop, acted as tem- 
porary secretary. 

The following brethren were severally admitted by 
the vote of the Conference, each one making a state- 
ment, as his name was presented, of his agreement 
with the Methodist Episcopal Church as to loyalty 



1 



PREACHERS ADMITTED. 



2S9 



and slavery; namely, E. Rowley, James Gumming, 
James A. Hyden, W. H. Rogers, John W. Mann, 
W. Graves, W. H. Duggan, William Milburn, J. L. 
Mann, R. G. Blackburn, T. H. Russel, J. B. Little, 
Andrew J. Greer, and John Alley. 

Dr. E. Rowley said he had been a slaveholder; 
did not consider himself so now ; regarded slavery 
as removed by the war, and accepted the fact as a 
blessing for the whites, whatever its effect might be 
on the blacks. 

J. Albert Hyden said that he had been educated 
to believe that slavery was religiously right ; on that 
subject he gave himself no uneasiness or trouble ; but 
that he had come to see dififerently. He believed, 
with the former speaker, that the removal of slavery 
would be a great blessing, the greatest blessing since 
the gift of Christ, to us and to our children's children. 
Let slavery go. He was never suspected of being 
loyal to the Confederacy. He remained quiet during 
the rebellion, and, as soon as practicable, he went into 
the service of God and his country as a chaplain. 

W. H. Rogers said : "It may have been my mis- 
fortune that I never was a slaveholder. I was taught 
to hate the institution of slavery. In 1828 I joined 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. When the question 
of secession came up, my mind was made up at once. 
I was among the first in East Tennessee to put my 
name to a card in favor of allegiance to the Govern- 
ment. A few months afterward, nine gentlemen, 
fully armed, came to my house. One of them, a 
young man, said, 'I presume you will take the oath?' 
I replied, 'You presume too much. What oath?' He 
answered, 'That of allegiance to the Confederacy.' I 
replied, 'No sir ! I do n't "cuss." ' I was taken to Knox- 
ville, and thence to all the Southern prisons ; was in 
19 



290 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



the penitentiary. I had heard of the palaces of the 
South. I did not find them palaces except in the sense 
of the poet : 

* Prisons would palaces prove, 
If Jesus would dwell with me there.' 

I had an opportunity 'to preach' Christ 'to the spirits 
in prison' — the Union soldiers imprisoned. Many of 
them were converted. I closed their eyes in death, 
and they took their flight from prisons to the palaces 
of light and glory. They went home. I returned, 
and, when put on trial before an ecclesiastical court, 
adhered to my loyalty." 

John W. Mann said : "I am ready and willing to 
take a place among you. As far as slavery is con- 
cerned, my skirts are clear. I never owned a Negro. 
My wife owned one or two, but they were sacrificed 
on the altar of my country. I was arrested in this 
town, and reqyired to take the oath or go to prison. 
Through the entreaties of my wife, I reluctantly took 
the oath of allegiance to the bogus Confederacy. I 
was called Xincoln' in this town ; was proscribed and 
persecuted. I left here, and since then have preached 
in Louisville one year; afterward, in Kentucky, Ohio, 
and Indiana." 

A venerable brother, William Milburn, remarked : 
"I was never connected with slavery; was not raised 
up to believe it was right ; was taught, from boyhood, 
to believe it was wrong; there never was an hour in 
which I approved it ; I do n't expect there ever will 
be. Have tried to be loyal to God and loyal to my 
Government ; I have suffered much for my loyalty ; 
was three times arrested by the authorities of the 
would-be Confederacy; I have had a saber presented 
to my throat, and, with oaths, have been rcciuired 
to take the oath. I said to the youth who made the 



WHAT THE PREACHERS SAID. 29 1. 



demand, 'Young man, your mother has taught you 
better than this.' I was trotted off, lame as I was, to 
Greensboro. My guard all sleeping, at about one 
o'clock I arose, shpped of¥^ and moved homeward, 
and at daylight found myself five miles from my 
prison. I had to remain concealed until John Morgan 
was killed. I united with the army, and have been 
with it ever since. I was ordained a deacon by Bishop 
Roberts, and an elder by Bishop Morris. I love the 
Church next to my life. I was arrested four times 
by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for my 
loyalty ; but they always had to write, 'We find noth- 
ing immoral against him.' I understand that I was 
expelled by the Abingdon Conference for my loyalty. 
I would sooner live and die out of the Church, and 
be unburied, than to be in connection w^ith the Church 
South. But for the clergy of the Church South this 
rebellion could never have occurred. The power of 
politicians was comparatively circumscribed; but when 
the clergy undertook, in co-operation with them, to 
rend the Nation, an influence was wielded which 
reached to every hamlet and fireside. I would rather 
have the artillery of a Bonaparte and the guns of a 
Wellington directed upon me than the groans and tears 
of the widows and orphans which have been caused 
by the influence of those preachers. I want to live 
in this Conference and to die here ; and I shall do so, 
unless an element of treason gets into it with which 
I can not, and will not, associate myself. I can not 
describe my feelings when I first saw, in a gap of 
the mountains, the honored flag of my country . Have 
been forty-one years a member of 'the Church. " 

J. N. S. Huffaker said he had been a Union man 
until it seemed that secession was an accomplished 
fact. The vState had gone out, and it looked as though 
the Confederacy were established. He had then taken 



292 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



the oath of allegiance. In this view and course he 
was mistaken. But when the Federal Government 
af¥orded protection to loyal men, he went to head- 
quarters at Knoxville, and stated his desire to be a 
loyal man, no oath being required; that, as soon as 
it was required^ he took the amnesty oath. He was 
a conservative man, was opposed to the proceedings 
of the Holston Conference of 1862 touching the re- 
bellion. He believed the organization of the Holston 
Conference of the Church South would be required, 
by the force of public opinion, to disband. 

J. L. Mann said : ''It was my fortune or misfortune 
to be born in Tennessee. I was reared among all the 
influences of Negro slavery, and efforts were made to 
make me believe it was right. But I have ever been 
an original, unmitigated, simon-pure Abolitionist. 
I consider it my misfortune that I was ever con- 
nected with the Church South. I joined this Confer- 
ence in i860, at the brewing of the rebellion. I re- 
mained in the northeast corner of the State two years. 
The Conference of 1862 was not a Conference ; it was 
a political inquisition presided over by that embodi- 
ment of treason, Bishop Early. I found it was too 
hot for me. I went to the Federal army. I took my 
saddlebags, and went to the Federal army, and for 
sixteen months I served God and my country in 
the army." 

R. G. Bbckburn said: "I was a member of the 
Holston Conference. My heart is with this move- 
ment, and it has been from the beginning. As this is 
my country, and where I have been between the 
gates, I may perhaps say, that I took the stand 
that politics and religion should be separate, and that 
it was not the business of a Conference to inquire 
into a man's sentiments, and certainly not to require 
him to support or favor a disloyal organization. I 



CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS. 



293 



regard it as the duty of every Methodist in this 
country to give a hearty support to this movement. 
I regard it as the blackest treason to attempt to keep 
up the Methodist Church, South, in this country. Re- 
belhon has been crushed; but to keep up another 
Methodist organization Hke that of the Church South, 
it is in danger of rising again, and efforts would be 
made to divide the country. And, if we expect to re- 
main one people, we must have one Church in this 
country." 

Some of the speeches, which differed little from 
those given, are omitted for want of room. T. H. 
Russel, J. B. Little, John Alley, made similar state- 
ments, and were received. 

This occupied the forenoon session, constituting 
one of the most interesting meetings I ever attended. 
Tears and sobs, shouts and responses, were inter- 
mingled with the exercises. 

In the afternoon, fast-day services were held in 
the Church, Bishop Clark and Rev. T. H. Pearne 
making addresses. A large audience was present. 

SECOND DAY'S PROCEEDINGS. 

Conference was opened with the usual services, 
conducted by Brother Hyden. P. H. Read, Augustus 
F. Shannon, S. D. -Gaines, E. E. Gillenwater, Samuel 
B. Harwell, and David Fleming were received from 
the Church South. H. B. Burkitt, a probationer of 
the Kentucky Conference, was transferred by the 
bishop. Brothers G. M. Hicks, T. S. Walker, T. P. 
Rutherford, Joseph P. Milburn, and John Forrester, 
probationers m the Holston Conference of the Church 
South, were received. Joseph Milburn, a located 
elder, was recognized and readmitted. Pending the 
reception of several, a warm discussion arose touch- 
ing the loyalty of applicants, the Conference carefully 



294 SIXTV-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



guarding against admitting those who had been active 
aiders of rebelHon, and receiving those who had taken 
the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy only upon 
full confession and promises of amendment. 

Chaplains Drake, Bowdish, and Black, and 
Brother Webb, of the Minnesota Conference, and 
Rev. Dr. Poe, were here introduced to the Confer- 
ence. 

SATURDAY'S PROCEEDINGS. 

These were opened with customary exercises, con- 
ducted by W. C. Graves. The session was occupied 
in the work of examining candidates for admission 
into full connection, and answering the questions, 
*'Who are admitted on trial? Who remain on trial? 
Who are the deacons ? Who are the elders ?" 

The following series of resolutions, touching the 
principles to govern the Conference in admitting per- 
sons to the Conference who had been tainted with 
disloyalty, was adopted : 

Whereas, It is expected by the loyal Methodists of the 
South, and especially of East Tennessee, that in the reorgan- 
ization of the Holston Conference of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church strict inquiry will be made touching the 
opinions concerning, and relations to, the late rebelUon, of 
applicants for admission and recognition as accredited min- 
isters, and that said opinions and relations will shape, to a 
greater or less extent, our official action in these cases; we 
therefore deem it necessary to state briefly the general prin- 
ciples controlling us in the premises; therefore. 

Resolved, i. That it is the sense of this body that those who 
entered into the late rebelHon, and imbibed the spirit thereof, 
are guilty of a crime sufficient to exclude them from the king- 
dom of grace and glory, and must not be admitted into this 
Conference, save upon full confession and thorough repent- 
ance. 

Resolved, 2. That those ministers who abandoned their 
work and their homes, and absconded the country upon the 
approach of the national flag, have so far forfeited claim to 



CONFERENCE REPORTS. 



295 



our confidence and Christian fellowship, that they should not 
be recognized by members of this Conference as accredited 
ministers till they shall have been restored by the proper 
authorities of the Church. 

Resolved, 3. That in the reception of preachers into this 
body constant regard will be had, not only to their personal 
qualifications and claims upon our Christian kindness and 
charity, but also to the opinions, feelings, and wishes of our 
people, and none ought to be admitted whose conduct, dur- 
ing the late rebellion, has been such as to make them odious 
to the masses, and whose usefulness as ministers of the 
gospel has been sacrificed to the unholy cause of treason and 
rebellion. 

Resolved, 4. That, while we feel constrained thus to indi- 
cate what is now the necessary policy of this Conference, we, 
with hopeful hearts, look forward to the time, and hope it is 
not far distant, when general confidence, friendship, and good- 
will shall be restored, and when, as in better days, we shall 
be one in heart, one in purpose, and one in our great work 
and labor of love. 

The report on the State of the Country was 
adopted, as follows: 

Your Committee on the State of the Country respectfully 
report: 

The Holston Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, in resuming the place she occupied among her sister 
Annual Conferences up to 1844, takes a decided position of 
loyalty, and heartily agrees with them in their outspoken 
antagonism to slavery. Our people have given costly proof 
of their devotion to the National Government, and by their 
votes slavery in Tennessee has been buried beyond, as we 
trust, a hope of resurrection. In assuming this position, this 
Conference makes for herself a very different record from 
that of the Holston Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, touching these questions. That Conference, 
held in this place in 1862, expelled one of its members "for 
joining the enemies of his country;" that is, for being a loyal 
citizen and aiding his Government in suppressing rebellion. 
It suspended another of its members tor a similar cause. In 
an elaborate report, presented by John N. McTyeire, on these 



I 



296 SIXTY- OXE YEARS OF ITIXERAXT WORK. 



cases, and others similarl}' accused, "the continued agitation 
of the subject of slavery" by the Churches North is falsely 
assigned as the cause of the late wicked rebellion. We say 
"falsely," because it was not the agitation of the slavery 
question, but the ineradicable tendencies and vices of the 
system itself, which brought about the unhappy events which 
have transpired. 

That report also openly avows and advocates the rightful- 
ness of the late attempted disruption of the United States, 
and gravely urges "the duty of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, alike because of her historical antecedents 
and her doctrinal peculiarities touching Southern institutions 
generally, and this institution — slavery — especially, to be 
found arrayed side by side with the great masses of the South- 
ern people in religiously contending in part for the same 
rights — political, civil, and religious — for the security of which 
they were compelled, in 1844, to adopt measures for a sepa- 
rate and independent ecclesiastical organization." . . . 
"But now that these questions — abstract political questions of 
secession and rebellion — have assumed a concrete form, and 
under the inspiration of Abolition fanaticism, have kindled 
the fires of the most brutal and ruthless war ever known in 
the histor}' of man, involving every interest, political and 
religious, held to be most sacred and absolutely vital to the 
present and future weal of our people, it is the deliberate 
conviction of your committee that no patriot, no Christian, 
and, least of all, no Christian minister who claims to be a 
citizen of the Confederate States of America, and- who is pre- 
sumed to be even partially acquainted with the merits of this 
unhappy controversy, can throw the weight of his opinions, 
words, or acts into the scale of our enemi-es against tis with moral 
impunity, or with a conscience void of offense toward God 
and his fellow-countrymen." 

Such treasonable deliverance, by a body of ministers in the 
nineteenth century, and in the United States, as well as the 
apparent spirit in which they were adopted, and the intolerant, 
relentless, and bitter persecutions of dissentients by which 
they were followed, justly produce surprise and astonishment; 
for they present a most humiliating fact in the history of a 
religious organization — a fact from which it would seem all 
good, true, patriotic, and Christian men must turn away 
with ineffable shame and regret. 



CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS. 



297 



In view of the foregoing facts and considerations, it is 
therefore 

Resolved, That we hail, with intense, inexpressible pleas- 
ure and profound gratitude to God the triumph of the 
national arms over a gigantic, unprovoked, and wicked re- 
bellion; the dispersion of the rebel armies which crimsoned 
the land with the blood of our sons and brothers, swept our 
homes with desolation, and filled our hearts with anguish; 
the established unity and integrity of our country and Gov- 
ernment; and also the assured future of our priceless national 
heritage of peace and liberty, civilization and religion. 

Resolved, That, as contributive to these results, we cherish 
with liveliest interest the hope, and we will labor with earnest 
zeal to realize its fruition, that soon the banners of true 
Methodism, loyal to country, to freedom, to right, and to 
God, shall wave in triumph over the whole country, from east 
to west, and from north to south, as now waves the banner of 
the Republic. 

It was stated by Brother Spence that Brother 
Fitzgerald had been waylaid by guerrillas, marched to 
the woods, and robbed of watch, clothing, and money, 
on his way to the Conference, and that he was expect- 
ing to be appointed to North Carolina, and had no 
money to go with. A collection of fifty dollars was 
raised for him. 

After the report on the State of the Country was 
adopted. Brother Drake, of the Ohio Conference, and 
other brethren, sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic. 

CONFERENCE SUNDAY. 

An immense audience crowded the church during 
the entire exercises of the day. At nine o'clock a 
Sunday-school meeting was had, under the direction 
of Brother Spence. Brethren Black, Hyden, and 
Gibson, army chaplains, and Pearne and Spence, ad- 
dressed the meeting, the children singing sweet ho- 
sannas. Bishop Clark preached, at 10.30 o'clock, an 



29'S SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



ef¥ective sermon. At times the audience seemed quite 
transported by the eloquence and fervor of the bishop. 
At the close of the sermon eight deacons were or- 
dained. At three o'clock P. M., Rev. T. H. Pearne, of 
Oregon, preached, at the close of which six were or- 
dained elders. 

MONDAY. 

The Conference finished its session this morning 
at 10.30 o'clock. Greeneville was fixed as the place of 
holding the next session. Several preachers additional 
were received from the Church South this morning. 
Among them was Rev. L. W. Crouch, a prominent 
member of the Holston Conference. 

The Conference has received forty-three, including 
probationers, making, with those transferred, fifty in 
all. Besides these, there are eighteen appointments 
left to be supplied. The Conference has preachers 
stationed in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. 
The statistics show a membership of 6,494, including 
probationers, 51 Sunday-schools, 336 officers and 
teachers, 2,425 scholars, 55 local preachers, and loi 
churches. What a glorious result from the labors of 
about a year spent in hunting up the sheep scattered 
in the wilderness! What a precious, glorious future 
may not, shall not, follow this wonderful beginning! 

The following are the appointments of the Con- 
ference : 

KnoxvilIvE District — Thomas. H. Pearne, P. E. — Knox- 
ville, J. F. Spence. Knox, Joseph P. Milburn. Rogersville, 
E. E. Gillenwater; supply, G. M. Hicks. Sneedsville, F. D. 
Crumley. Tazewell and Powell's Valley, T. B Walker; one 
to be supplied. Maynardsville, Thomas S. Walker. Rut- 
ledge, Philip Chambers. Jacksboro, John Forrester. Clin- 
ton, John IMahoney. Dandridge, Andrew J. Greer. Sevicr- 
ville, Daniel Carter. 



APPOINTMENTS. 



299 



Athens District—/. Albert Hyden, P. E. — Athens, John 
W. ATann, L. W. Crouch. Athens Circuit, John E. Moore. 
Decatur, Joseph W. Peace. Philadelphia, J. B. Little, J. M. 
Stamper. Madisonville and Jellico Mission, to be supplied. 
Marysville, Thomas H. Pussel. Louisville, T. P. Rutherford. 
Little River, to be supplied. Kingston and Sulphur Springs, 
Samuel B. Harwell, supply; one to be supplied. Mont- 
gomery, to be supplied. E. Rowley, President of and Agent 
for Athens Female College, and member of Athens Quarterly 
Conference. W. H. Rogers, Conference Agent for Sunday- 
schools, educational institutions, and embarrassed Churches, 
and member of Louisville Quarterly Conference. 

Chattanooga District.— William C. Daily, P. ^.—Chat- 
tanooga, T. S. Stivers. Cleveland, J. L. Mann. Cleveland 
and Benton, A. F. Shannon; one to be supplied. Hamilton 
and Washington, M. H. B. Burkitt, G. A. Cowan. Pikes- 
ville and Jasper, John Alley; one to be supplied. Ducktown, 
to be supplied. Harrison and Lafayette, two to be supplied. 
Dalton, to be supplied. Rome, to be supplied. Atlanta, to 
be supplied. 

JoNESBORO District — L. F. Drake, P. E. — Jonesboro, to 
be supplied. Jonesboro Circuit, to be supplied. Elizabeth- 
town and Taylorsville, Flarmon J. Crumley. Blountville and 
Bristol, to be supplied. Kingsport, S. G Gaines. Rheatown, 
Joseph Milburn. Greeneville, to be supplied. Morristown, 
W. C. Graves. Fall Branch and Kingsport, to be supplied. 
St. Clair, to be supplied. Newport, James Mahoney. North 
Carolina Circuit, A. R. Wilson, J. B. Fitzgerald. William 
Milburn chaplain in the army, and member of Rheatown 
Quarterly Conference. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



ON the last day of the session of the Holston 
Conference, just before adjournment, Bishop 
Clark made the following closing remarks, which 
were phonographically reported by Rev. C. G. 
Bowdish: 

Bre:thr5:n, — Though the time for the departure 
of the train which must bear us away is at hand, in- 
dulge me in a few remarks at this closing hour. 

And, first, allow me to return thanks for the kind 
mention you have made of my services, and the gen- 
erous expression of confidence and affection made by 
you in the resolution just passed. Next to the ap- 
proval of God and my own conscience, I hold that 
of my brethren in highest honor. If my official serv- 
ices among you, in the new and anomalous state of 
affairs in which we have been placed, have received 
your approbation, I am glad. And truly thankful shall 
I be if they are approved by the great Head of the 
Church, and shall tend to promote the great ends of 
a pure Christianity among you. 

The uniform kindness and courtesy that have 
characterized your intercourse throughout, the har- 
miony of thought, and purpose, and feeling, are worthy 
of all commendation. We came together strangers 
to each other. You were without organization. 
Everything was in a chaotic state. You had to be- 
come acquainted with each other's views, and feelings, 
and purposes. You had to learn, to a great extent, 
who among you could be relied upon, and how much 
reliance could be placed upon the movement as a 

300 n 



1 



BISHOP CLARK'S ADDRESS. 



301 



whole. To see you, then, blending together so har- 
moniously, becoming one in feeling, plan, and pur- 
pose, and giving shape to your movement with as 
much system and order as an old-established Confer- 
ence, was not only a sight beautiful to the eye, but a 
cause of profound gratitude to Almighty God, who 
has given you this will and purpose. But into this 
you have been schooled, in a great measure, by the 
common perils through which you have passed, and 
the common sufferings you have endured in this ruth- 
less war, which has swept over and desolated so large 
a portion of this land. From questions which have 
been proposed to me, I judge it may not be amiss to 
repeat the explanations which have already been given 
on one or two points : First. With regard to the 
specific conditions upon which ministers coming from 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, are received 
among us. You will observe these conditions are the 
same as those required of ministers comiing from the 
Wesleyan Connection in England, with the addition 
that they are to give satisfactory assurances to the 
Annual Conference of their loyalty to the National 
Government, and also of their hearty approval of the 
anti-slavery doctrine of our Church. This was not 
designed as a reflection upon any individual minister ; 
but you are aware, brethren, that while the old Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church has been intensely loyal to the 
Government, the Church South has, in every depart- 
ment, been tainted with treason. So, also, in regard 
to slavery ; while the old Church has been developing 
into clearer and more decisive forms of practical ap- 
plication the anti-slavery doctrine she held from the 
beginning, the case has been widely different with the 
Church South. The cause of her separation from the 
old Church, the corner-stone on which she built, was 
slavery, and, as a result, she has not only received 



302 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

''the great evil" as a great good, but has become stained 
all over with the crimes of oppression and treason. I 
repeat it, then, that it is not a reflection, upon any in- 
dividual minister, but to guard against the possible 
creeping in again of either of those two elements, that 
the old Church has placed these two sentinels at the 
door of entrance. No true man will wish them re- 
moved. No one true to his allegiance to his countr}^ 
or his Church would hesitate to assume the obhgation. 

Brethren, on going forth from this place to en- 
gage in your work, I am aware that you are going 
forth to a very delicate, as well as im.portant, mission. 
There is no Annual Conference in all the bounds of 
Christian labor where the work is environed with so 
many di^^iculties, and where so much wisdom, so much 
gentleness of spirit, so much patience under provo- 
cation, will be required as here in this work. 

I do not say that we are utterl}^ and entirely to 
ignore the past, or that you can obliterate from your 
minds the scenes through which you have been called 
to pass. Those of you who have been called to suffer, 
who have been fugitives from 3^our homes, seeking 
hiding-places among the mountains, whose substance 
has been wasted, whose sons have been slain on the 
battle-field, or foully butchered in the presence of be- 
seeching mothers and sisters, I do not say that you 
can obliterate these sufferings from your memory ; 
I do not say that, without hearty repentance and 
amendment on their part, you can associate on familiar 
or brotherly terms with those who have assisted in 
bringing on this fearful state of things. And yet, 
brethren, it does appear to me that you are placed 
precisely of all others in the bounds of the Church, 
where, in all her history, you can best exhibit the mag- 
nanimity of Christianity ; where you can exhibit that 
forgiveness and that love that rises above every injus- 



CLOSING ADDRESS. 



tice and wrong. I pray God you may go forth bearing 
this spirit in your heart, and may manifest it in all 
your labors in the vineyard of your Lord and Master. 
Wherever you go from this place, let it be seen that 
you bear this spirit with you. See to it that the pre- 
cious seed you sow be not rendered unfruitful. Your 
provocations are great, but the indwelling spirit of 
Christ will make you superior to them all. 

Upon the point of reconstruction I will add an- 
other word. If you wish to lay deep and broad the 
foundations of the Church here, you can not do it 
by excluding all who have been in any way connected 
with this rebellion, as some propose. You can not 
lift up your banner, and say. We will have no member 
nor minister that has been swept away in this fearful 
tide of secession, this whirlwind of desolation that has 
passed over this land ; but it appears to me that when 
such persons become convinced of their error, that 
they were mistaken, that they were led astray by the 
leadership of others ; when men come feeling thus, 
with open arms and Christian love, you should receive 
them and press them to your breasts, and bid them 
Godspeed in the way to heaven. 

The announcement of the appointments of an 
Annual Conference is always an hour of oppressive 
sadness, and my feelings have ever shrunk from 
this duty^ as a burden I should never have willingly 
undertaken, had not God, in his providence, placed it 
upon me. I am aware that all my brethren here can 
not be satisfied, that their views and their feelings 
can not always be met; their convenience, their com- 
fort, sometimes, must be sacrificed, and the comfort of 
their families. The social relations of our itinerants, the 
comfort of their wives and children, are to be con- 
sidered. I do hold that the wife of an itinerant should 
not be forgotten, but that her feelings and her inter- 



304 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

ests should be taken into account in the adjustment 
of these appointments. These women, who share in 
the labors of the itinerant, and do their part in carry- 
ing forward the great work of an itinerant ministry — 
all honor to their devotion, and the blessing of heaven 
rest upon them ! 

My brethren, your mission may sometimes seem 
hard and uninviting, but you will remember that it 
is the same mission that brought the blessed Redeemer 
from heaven to earth. O, when you view it in this 
lights when you remember that this work was con- 
sidered of such transcendent importance as to bring 
the blessed Redeemer to earth, how it swells into 
grandeur and importance ! You go forth to-day upon 
the same mission, and to work in the same vineyard. 
You w411 remember that he came not here to enjoy 
the palaces of ease and luxury. . He came not here 
to enjoy the comforts of home or the conveniences of 
life ; but he came to be a homeless wanderer, that 
fallen humanity might be blessed, redeemed, and 
saved. You go forth to the same mission, and in all 
your joys, in all your privations and toils in the vine- 
yard of your blessed Master, remember your Savior 
trod in the same path, endured the same toils, shared 
in the same triumphs, and reaps the same rewards. 
As you bow at this sacred altar, in these closing serv- 
ices, take of the same love that was in the heart of 
your blessed Master, let that spirit be kindled in your 
hearts, go forth bearing this spirit, and God will bless 
you and your labors in his vineyard. 

I must now leave this work with 3^ou and with 
God. O, may his blessing be upon you ! As your 
beautiful country is just beginning to recuperate from 
the desolations of war, and gives promise of returning 
beauty and prosperity, so may the spiritual heritage 
you cultivate ''bud and blossom as the rose." ^lay the 



CLOSING ADDRESS. 



Great Master go with you, may you be armed and 
equipped as good soldiers for your work, and the 
blessing of God be upon you, upon your families, 
upon the Churches over which you have the over- 
sight, and through your instrumentality sinners be 
brought home to God ! And if you should fall in the 
work — and this may be the case — it may be that some 
of these fathers, full of toils and labors in the past, 
may cease to live, and go to their reward; or it may 
be that some of the middle-aged, in the strength of 
their manhood, and bearing the burden and heat of 
the day, w^ill pass away; or it may be some young 
man, just rising in the morning of life, and girding 
himself for the work, may be called; whoever it may 
be, God grant that he may pass away with the light 
of heaven shining all around, and go from these scenes 
of toil to the immortal rewards at God's right hand! 

Through all my life, down to my dying hour^ shall 
this session of the Holston Conference live in my 
memory. I shall cherish with fond recollection the 
thought that I have been permitted to come among 
you, and that here the banner of the old Church, after 
an interval of twenty years, has been again unfurled ; 
that Church 'that has won so many victories in 
the past, that is spreading her agencies all through 
the land; that is following up the tide of life along 
our Western frontier ; that is prosecuting her mission- 
ary work all over the golden plains of the interior 
of our country, and spreading along the Pacific Coast ; 
that is raising her standard in India and China. I 
rejoice to come among you, and, here in the South, 
to raise up the fallen standard of the old Church, where 
so many victories have been achieved in the past. 
Amid these scenes of former toil and triumph may that 
standard be lifted up forever, and onward may it be 
borne to still greater victories in the future ! 
20 



3o6 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

In the Western CJiristiau Advocate of August 20, 
1 89 1, I contributed the following personal recol- 
lections of the events referred to in the last chapter, 
with some additional particulars. As this was the 
beginning of our new work 'in the South, they will 
be of special interest to the reader. 

BISHOP CIvARK IN THE SOUTH. 

The one feature of Bishop Clark's episcopal ad- 
ministration which will most distinguish it is the lead- 
ing part he took in replanting our Church in the 
South, from which, twenty years before^ slavery had 
banished it. Hundreds have said, since reconstruc- 
tion, that the division of the Church in 1845 had given 
them great dissatisfaction. Hence they hailed the re- 
turn of the old Methodist Episcopal Church with the 
liveliest satisfaction. In this movement Bishop Clark 
was a chief actor. In conducting it he displayed rare 
qualities as a leader and organizer. He was prudent, 
yet wise, bold, resourceful. He showed good judg- 
ment of men, and he handled men with skill. In 
twelve years' experience as a presiding elder I never 
sat in cabinet with a bishop more careful and wise ; 
and in the special work of reconstruction he displayd 
these qualities in a marked degree. The great scope 
and growth of the Methodist Episcopal Church since 
1865 prove his far-sighted sagacity. They show that 
he was divinely led. I was intimately associated with 
him from the beginning of his work in that Southern 
field. It is therefore fitting that I should detail such 
events of that period as will best display his character- 
istics in that delicate, difficult, and most significant 
movement. 

My personal acquaintance with him began in the 
General Conference of 1864. Previous general knowl- 



ARTICLE IN ADVOCATE. 



edge of him, as a successful educator and editor, had 
prepossessed me in his favor. The later and closer 
official and personal relations I had with him con- 
firmed my impressions. Hence I voted for him for 
bishop in 1864, when he was elected. 

In June, 1865, at his request, I accompanied him to 
Athens, Tennessee, where he reorganized the Holston 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Some months before a Convention was held in Knox- 
ville, Tennessee, consisting of local and traveling min- 
isters and laymen of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South. The members of that Convention had been 
loyal to the United States during the then recent war. 
They also expressed the views and wishes of some 
thousands of other laymen, who also had been thus 
true. They had suffered greatly because of such 
loyalty. Some of them, for this reason, had been pro- 
scribed, tried,, and suspended by the Holston Con- 
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 
Some of them had been in rebel prisons for their de- 
votion to the national cause. All this was duly set 
forth in the resolutions adopted by the Convention, 
and which also declared their unwilling-ness longer 
to recognize the pastors of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, as their pastors. 

The Convention also requested the authorities of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church to reorganize the 
old Methodist Episcopal Church in East Tennessee. 
In pursuance of these facts, Bishop Clark proceeded 
to Athens to organize the first Methodist Annual Con- 
ference in the late slave States since the division of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1845. Adam 
Poe, then one of the Western Book Agents^ was of 
our party. The railroads in Tennessee were yet under 
military control. We traveled over them on military 
passes. 



3o8 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

In Nashville, Rev. J. B. McFerrin, D. D., of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, sought and ob- 
tained an interview with Bishop Clark. By the 
bishop's request, Dr. Poe and myself were present on 
that occasion. I am the only survivor of the four per- 
sons then present. Dr. McFerrin earnestly urged the 
bishop to desist from, or to defer, his purpose to re- 
organize the old Church in the South. He hoped to 
see an organic union of the two Methodist Episcopal 
Churches after the passions and animosities of the war 
had subsided. He thought the reorganization of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in East Tennessee would 
revive the smoldering embers of sectionalism, and de- 
fer for a long time, if not forever, the fulfillment of 
his hope of such reunion. He pleaded that the old 
pastors of that section could better serve the people 
there than new ones imported from the North. 

The bishop repHed, in substance, that most of the 
East Tennesseeans had been loyal ; that some of their 
ministers had been deposed for their loyalty, and had 
been otherwise ill-treated ; that the large Knoxville 
Convention, including many preachers and laymen, 
and representing thousands of others, had urgently 
requested the re-establishment of the old Church ; and 
that, in this request, the laymen were more strenuous 
than the ministers. The bishop also showed that the 
pastors he would appoint would be chiefly those who 
had served that people as pastors before and during 
the war; and that, if the petitioners could not have 
the ministry of loyal preachers of their own denom- 
ination, they would go to other Churches, and not to 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The bishop 
said the Methodist Episcopal Church could not ig- 
nore the Macedonian cry coming from those sheep 
without shepherds and a fold ; and that, finally, to pro- 
vide for these and any others in the South who might 



TRANSFER TO HOLSTON CONFERENCE. 309 

ask or need such provision, would not, in his opinion, 
retard, but, on the contrary, would hasten, the organic 
unity desired, whenever the. hour for it should really 
strike. Dr. Poe said but little, and I said nothing. 
I detail this conversation thus minutely as an act of 
justice to Bishop Clark, and because it seemed to me 
like a turning of the hinges of destiny. 

I was transferred to the new Conference, and as- 
signed to Knoxville District. Amid tears and shouts, 
Bishop Clark organized the new Conference as the 
Holston Conference. Four districts were formed and 
manned. Carefully, wisely, and thoroughly the bishop 
tended these new charges. He presided in two or 
three Conference sessions during that quadrennium, 
because, better than a stranger, he knew the needs 
of the work. How wonderfully the planting of twenty- 
six years ago has grown and multiplied, is demon- 
strated by our Church statistics. In church-building 
there, with suspended Church Extension drafts, he 
strongly and kindly re-enforced his ministers in the 
South with counsel and pecuniary relief, until we all 
came to regard him more as a father and a friend 
than as a leader and organizer, although he excelled 
in both these latter quaHties. 



I 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



In the Western Christian Advocate for June 7, 
1865, appeared the following contribution from my 
pen: 

LETTER FROM NASHVILLE. 

This has been a day of special interest in Nash- 
ville. McKendree Chapel is occupied by us under a 
military order. The title^ I am informed, is in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. The building is seventy- 
five feet by one hundred. The audience-room is there- 
fore spacious and comfortable. A basement, with class 
and Sunday-school rooms, is under the entire build- 
ing. The congregation worshiping in old McKendree 
is perceptibly changing, in the diminishing number 
of soldiers who attend, and the greater proportion 
of civilians, including ladies. The parsonage premises 
are held and occupied by Brother McGee in similar 
manner as the church. 

Yesterday McKendree Chapel was crowded to lis- 
ten to Rev. Bishop Clark, of your city. His sermon 
was heard by the immense audience with profound 
attention. Rev. Dr. Poe, of your Book Concern, as- 
sisted in the services. They also attended and ad- 
dressed the large Sunday-school which preceded the 
public worship. In the afternoon the sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper was observed, and nearly sixty 
communicated. At evening, Rev. T. H. Pearne, of 
Oregon, preached. Owing to a sudden thunder- 
shower, the attendance was less than in the morning, 
yet a good degree of interest was apparent. This 
is a memorable day for Nashville and Tennessee. 

310 



LETTER FROM NASHVILLE. 311 

"There are signs in the sky that the morning is 
near." The Methodist Episcopal Church takes no 
backward steps. The Daily Press and Times, of this 
city, thus noticed the interview of Bishop Clark and 
others with Governor Brownlow : 

Interesting Meeting. — Calling in at the executive room 
of the Capitol Saturday morning, we found Governor Brown- 
low in conference — we might say Methodist Conference — with . 
the distinguished Bishop Clark, of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, of Cincinnati; Rev. Dr. A. Poe, of the Methodist 
Book Concern, of the same city; Rev. T. H. Pearne, of Ore- 
gon, late editor of the Pacific Christian Advocate, and some 
three or four other Methodist clergymen, among them some 
of our most active chaplains. The first three named are on 
their way to attend the Holston Conference, which will meet 
in Athens, East Tennessee, on the ist of June next. We 
learned that their purpose is, if possible, to effect a reunion 
of the Methodist Church of this State with the Church, North, 
so that the grand old denomination may once more be a 
national organization. May God speed the reunion! It will 
be the welding of another of those golden links whose 
breaking hastened our Civil War. The first was an involun- 
tary meeting of the rebel preachers of this city, summoned 
by Governor Johnson in 1862, to inquire into their purposes 
and feelings toward the Government. Governor Johnson 
presided with the dignity of a bishop; but the rebellious pas- 
tors looked as sour as a barrel of pickles. 

The editor is slightly incorrect as to the purpose 
of Bishop Clark's visit. It is not exactly to effect a 
union of the Methodist Church of the State with the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, for in Middle and West- 
ern Tennessee the Methodists have not generally in- 
dicated a desire for such reunion ; but in East Ten- 
nessee some five thousand laymen and nearly thirty 
ministers have dissolved allegiance to the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, and propose to unite with 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

On next Thursday Bishop Clark is to preside at 



3 [2 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

the reorganization of the Holston Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Chnrch, and he will appoint pas- 
tors over the scattered Churches of East Tennessee. 
These pastors will be mostly those who have remained 
true to the Nation through the storm of rebellion, and 
they and the laymen to whom they will minister, 
prefer a Church which has never faltered in its loyalty 
to the National Government. Of the Conference I 
will write you more fully hereafter. 

This place was the headquarters of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. South. Here was their Book Con- 
cern and Publishing-house. The building and its ma- 
chinery were converted — rumor says with the ap- 
proval, if not at the instance of the agents — into an 
official engineery for manufacturing munitions of war 
for the now defunct Confederacy. When Nashville 
was occupied by our troops, the house was employed 
for holding military supplies. The building looks 
desolate and dilapidated. 

Rev. Drs. J. B. McFerrin and A. L. P. Green, 
whose inflammatory speeches helped to "fire the 
Southern heart" in this region, and gave impetus to 
secession movements here, followed the Confederate 
army as chaplains, or otherwise, until it disbanded. 
They have lately returned, and taken the oath under 
the Amnesty Proclamation. It is said they have be- 
come convinced by events that the overthrow of re- 
bellion and slavery is according to the will of God. 
Their optics must have been very obtuse not to have 
seen it long since. 

Considerable is said here of a union of the two 
Methodist Churches. The plan favored by leading- 
ministers of the Church South is for us to take the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, back as a whole, 
with its editors, book agents, bishops, and mission- 
ary arrangements entire. How would that be relished 



LETTER FROM NASHVILLE. 313 

in the North ? Bishop Soule resides six miles north of 
this place, on the Gallatin Pike. He is in failing 
health, both of mind and body. 

There is a good deal of latent Copperheadism here. 
Secesh ladies say "The South is conquered, but not 
subdued," and the love for the Union is not as general 
nor as strong as it should be. There is considerable 
of the Copperish element in the Legislature, which 
is now in session. Negro suffrage will not be allowed 
at the present session. The same members will meet 
next fall. They may provide for it then. It is their 
only protection against the prevalence of anti-union, 
anti-freedom, pro-slavery politics in the State of Ten- 
nessee. If the Legislature does not give the Negroes 
the protection of the elective franchise, it will not be 
accorded in a generation without riots, and perhaps 
serious disturbance of the peace and order of the 
State. 

Speaking of Governor Brownlow, he is in very 
feeble healthy and I shall not be surprised if he does 
not live long. But his iron will and his inflexible 
loyalty are quite as evident as ever. A characteristic 
incident occurred the other day at the State-house. 
Dr. McFerrin, on his return from Johnston's army, 
called upon his excellency. The governor, , recog- 
nizing him, remarked, "Well, Mac, you know what 
the hymn says, — 

"And while the lamp holds out to burn 
The vilest sinner may return," — 

and God knows you fill the hill.''' 

The governor, in his correspondence with the 
president of the East Tennessee and Atlanta Rail- 
road, who proposed to return the road to the gov- 
ernor for the stockholders, after wasting and injuring 
it in the service of the Confederacy, recites the wrongs 



314 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT TFORRT. 



and wickedness of the disloyal, rebellious president 
and stockholders, and assures him that, instead of re- 
ceiving indemnity from the State of Tennessee, or 
from the Union, for damage to the road by the United 
States military, the stock of disloyal men will be sunk 
for the repairs the road may need. In his controversy 
with Judge Trigg, the governor is clearly right, and 
will be sustained. 

Nashville is a queer city. It has a very fine natural 
site. Its State-house is one of the best, if not the best, 
in the Union. Some of its dwellings are elegant; 
many of them are small and unsightly. Mrs. Polk's 
residence and Mr. Polk's tomb are much visited. Her 
loyalty is said to be slight. Nashville is a filthy city. 
The hotels are mean, the fare indifferent, and the 
prices exorbitant. But the South, free, shall yet as- 
sume other and better aspects, and this city may yet 
rival Cleveland, in Ohio, or Syracuse, New York, for 
thrift and elegance. Meanness, affiuence, and poverty, 
refinement and boorishness, are in close propinquity. 
An incident is related that transpired here when the 
news of Mr. Lincoln's assassination was received. A 
female rebel was exulting over the event in hearing 
of a wounded soldier who was traveling on crutches. 
Seizing one of them, he commenced cudgeling the 
virago, who fled from him across the street. As he 
could not follow her, he stooped down to the gutter, 
and threw mud at her, soiling her costly dress. A 
man came to the soldier, as her friend, to take up the 
quarrel for her. The soldier drew his revolver, and 
professed his readiness to settle the matter then and 
there. The defender of the rebel in crinoline, evi- 
dently deemed discretion the better part of valor, and 
retired from the contest. OBSERVER. 

Nashvii^IvE, Tenn., May 29, 1865. 



EDITORIAL IN ADVOCATE. 315 

The following editorial in the Western Chris- 
tian Advocate for June 14, 1865, accompanied my 
report of the organization of the Holston Confer- 
ence, which I have already inserted in this volume : 

THE) HOLSTON CONFKRENCB. 

We again consume our first page with a single re- 
port, but so important that we think the length may 
well be excused. By one means and another, it seems 
that, all through the border region, information had 
been given of a proposed reunion of the two great 
organizations. North and South. The proceedings 
clearly indicate with how little favor the proposition 
met. Indeed, we are assured that a prospect of the suc- 
cess of any such measure would have materially affected 
ii not defeated, the organization of the Conference. 
We can now see clearly that there was no needless 
delay in forming this Conference. The body is now 
twice the size that it could have been a year ago, 
and starts off with a prestige and power that augur 
well for its future. Bishop Clark has been as wise in 
his delay as he has been outspoken in his sentiments 
and prompt in execution. We have now fifty men 
in that field, with plenty of places to be supplied, 
where heroic ministers can find a field for all they 
will do and endure. Our brethren there ought to have 
the prayers of the Church, and its contributions, too. 
We adopt them heartily as our brethren, and shall 
be glad to make the Western their voice to the imi- 
versal Church. We shall yet circulate through their 
territory, and labor together with them for the com- 
mon good and the Redeemer's glory. Only think 
of a North Carolina Circuit ! God bless the preacher ! 
This indicates the true way to union. Here is a 



3l6 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

theory, and practice too. Let the truly loyal anti- 
slavery sentiment of the South unite with us, and let 
us wait for the others till they can see their fglly. There 
will yet be but one Methodist Episcopal Church, from 
the Lakes to the Gulf, from ocean to ocean; but the 
vision may tarry. Let us wait for it; it will surely 
come; it will not tarry. Not one word of bitterness 
for any; but the world is our parish, and our unre-. 
stricted commission is to preach the gospel to every 
creature. Let us obey the Master, and our glory as 
a Church, our numbers, and all else, will take care of 
themselves. Nothing we could publish would be more 
read than these very proceedings. The place of meet- 
ing, as Bishop Clark states, was interesting for the 
reason assigned ; the place of their next session will 
be scarcely less so as the home of President Johnson. 

I traveled the Knoxville District the first four 
years of my work in the Holston Conference. The 
district was large. It required travel by pike for 
the most part. The country was traversed by 
mountain ranges and by large creeks and rivers, 
so making the labors of the incumbent severe. Yet 
the loyal people were kind and hospitable. We 
had some precious revivals each year of my incum- 
bency on that district; but the country was in a 
distracted condition. The rebels were coming back 
to their old homes, and the loyal boys who had 
worn the Blue and fought under the flag of the 
Union, and who remembered the way the Confed- 
erate authorities had treated some of the Union 
people of that section during the war, did not treat 
them very hospitably. The Church South preach- 
ers were, in some instances, treated very roughly 



ON THE HOLSTON DISTRICT. 317 

by their former neighbors and acquaintances. 
They were whipped, and perhaps otlierwise mal- 
treated. I never heard of any of them being tarred 
and feathered, ahhough this might have been done. 
They were shot from ambuscades. All this tended 
to hinder the gospel. I wrote and pubhshed my 
deep regret at this violence and private revenge 
as being demoralizing, and I spoke openly and 
strongly against this bloodthirsty spirit. I scarcely 
ever held a public preaching or other service with- 
out opposing violence towards any person for past 
opinions or actions. I had heard that Captain 
Sizemore — a captain in the Union army — had 
threatened to kill a certain presiding elder of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, if he came 
about near him attempting to preach or to hold 
public religious services. I went many miles out of 
my way to dissuade him, if possible, from carrying 
his threat of murder into effect. I spent nearly the 
whole night in urging him not to use any violence, 
and certainly to refrain from visiting murderous 
violence upon the presiding elder aforesaid, as it 
was an example that might have found imitators 
in dealing with loyal Tennesseeans. I prevailed on 
him to promise me that he would not molest that 
presiding elder in his work. The reason he as- 
signed for his purpose to shoot the Confederate 
presiding elder if he should come into his neighbor- 
hood was this: He said that that presiding elder 
had wantonly caused the death of his young 
brothers while he, the United States captain in the 
Union service, was absent from his home. Vox this 



2,1 S SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

conservative position I fell under the disapproba- 
tion of many loyalist people in East Tennessee, and 
I came near losing m^i life because false statements 
appeared in the public papers incriminating me, 
and of those who had been in the Confederate serv- 
ice, for my alleged complicity with the molestation 
of Southern Methodist preachers. 

I had occasion to attend the session of the Hol- 
ston Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, "in Asheville, North Carolina, in 
1866, the first one they held after the close of the 
war. The year before the Conference had not been 
held, because the ministers of that body were in 
the rebel lines. I was set upon by several ruffians 
in the Conference rooms, who sought to provoke 
me into a wrangle, and then take my life. I was 
informed, when I narrated the facts to a bookseller 
in Asheville, that these toughs had been informed 
that I was aiding and abetting the proscription and 
abuse of Southern preachers in East Tennessee, and 
that this was the cause and the inspiration of the 
concerted onslaught made upon me. I was fired 
upon in Knoxville before I had been there a month, 
and when the murderer saw I did not fall, he ran 
away as fast as he could. The way I came to be- 
lieve that the shot was intended for me, was because 
I wore a peculiar kind of hat, unlike all others worn 
in Knoxville. As showing the animus of the ex- 
Confederate Methodists in the Holston country, 
this incident will be in place. I went up on a freight 
train from Knoxville to hold a quarterly-meeting 
a mile or two back from the railroad. The train 



EXPERIENCES. 



did not stop at the station called Strawberry Plains, 
but some half mile above it. The night was very 
dark. In going down to the station, I fell into a 
' cattle-guard,, and seriously wounded myself. The 
only Methodist living there whom I knew was a 
Mr. . He was a leading member of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South, and he had been 
an active sympathizer and worker in the Confeder- 
ate cause. I think he had been in the Confederate 
army. I called on him with my disfigured and 
bleeding face, and requested him to lodge me and 
care for me for the night. This was refused, and 
I had to walk in darkness and over a strange road 
two miles to get entertainment and care. He knew 
me very well, and his was the only residence near 
the station affording the conveniences and care I 
required. I told him my situation, and said that I 
did not know the way to the place where my meet- 
ing was to be held, nor the name of any one there 
to apply to for lodging and care; but he declined 
my request in a rude and brusque manner. 

On another occasion I went to a place to hold 
a quarterly-meeting on Saturday and Sunday. In 
that neighborhood there were quite a large number 
of ex-Confederates. On reaching the church, a 
friend took me aside, and informed me that threats 
had been freely made in the community that I 
would not be allowed to preach there, and he feared 
that if I attempted to hold a meeting there I would 
be injured, and perhaps killed. I thanked him for 
his due and timely warning ; but stated that I would 
hold the meeting there, whatever the personal con- 



320 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

sequences to me might be. I entered the church 
and kneeled down as usual to offer a brief prayer; 
and then I stated to the large audience assembled 
that I had been informed that I would not be al- 
lowed to hold a religious service there; but that I 
hoped the information was not true. I had no 
other purpose than kindness in coming; and that 
freedom of speech was a right I was not willing to 
surrender. I should hold the meeting I said, and, 
if molested, I was prepared to defend myself. I 
displayed my revolver, and laid it down before me. 
I then proceeded with the meeting without inter- 
ruption. I received man)^ anonymous letters, con- 
taining pictures of coffins and skulls and cross- 
bones, and warning me that unless I left that section 
of the country I would be done up by the dagger, 
and find my way into the coffin without further 
notice. These missives were very alarming to my 
wife; and yet she would not let me see any trepi- 
dation nor apparent alarm. They were generally 
signed ''Ku-Klux." 

My brother. Rev. William Hall Pearne, was en- 
gaged in the work of reconstruction in West Ten- 
nessee at the same time that I was operating in like 
lines in East Tennessee. He informed me that he 
repeatedly received Ku-Klux letters, and that he 
never referred to them, so that the senders could 
know his thought or feeling in regard to them. 
On one occasion his train was held up by the Ku- 
Klux. He had that day shaved off his mustache, 
and he thinks his life was saved because of that fact. 
He said the men who came into the sleeper where 



SOUTHERN SENTIMENT. 



321 



he was lying, drew aside the curtains, and ex- 
amined every cot and the occupant. When they 
came to him he feigned sleep, and they did. not 
waken him. The porter told him afterwards that 
he heard them say the Northern minister they were 
in search of wore a mustache; but that as there 
was no one in the sleeper who had a mustache, the 
man they were after they were unable to find, and 
he probably had not taken that train, as they had 
supposed. The passengers were not further mo- 
lested ; and after the sleeper had been searched, the 
train was permitted to proceed. Incidents of that 
nature are not particularly reassuring to the vic- 
tims of such treatment. It is to be hoped that the 
day for conduct so barbarous has gone by forever 
in our country. It was designed to frighten the 
colored people, and to put Northerners, who, for 
any reason, might be obnoxious to them, in such 
dread that they would leave that section of the 
country. In repeated instances white persons were 
subjected to brutal treatment, and were driven 
away by their terrific methods. 

In 1867 I went down to Atlanta, to attend a 
meeting of the Georgia Conference. I was return- 
ing from meeting on Sunday morning to my hotel, 
and met a man and a woman who seemed to want 
to show a hostile spirit towards me as a Northerner. 
As I was about to pass them they crowded as far 
from me as possible, and the woman said to her 
companion, in a loud and whining voice : "I 've no 
patience with the Northern people, who come down 
here where they are not wanted; let them stay in 
21 



322 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



the country where they belong." As though he 
did not hear her, but really because he wanted the 
afifront repeated, he said, "What did you say?" 
She piped out the same remark. When I saw her 
evident effort to put distance between her and my- 
self, I w^as strongly tempted to blow my nose sig- 
nificantly, and then, too, came the impulse to resent 
the insult by some stinging remark; but I had the 
grace to keep silent. If I had made any sign, or 
spoken any word which^ would have been severe 
or sarcastic, the Southern press would probably 
have made a sensational and scandalous note upon 
the affair, charged me with some indecent or out- 
rageous allegation of my maltreatment of a lady 
in Georgia, and I could not have sent telegrams 
fast enough to set myself right against her story of 
wrong and violence. 

The use of tobacco was very general. Not only 
the men used it by smoking and chewing it, but 
the women as well. Not only the boys chewed and 
smoked, but the girls and young women also did. 
The women, many of them, were snuff-dippers. 
They would chew the end of a stick, and when the 
part so chewed was soft and wet with their saliva, 
they would dip it into snuff, and then lay the stick, 
full of snuff, into their mouths. This stimulated 
the saliva, and the expectoration of the snuff-dip- 
pers was far more excessive than that of the men. 
I would hold quarterly-meetings in East Tennessee, 
where the amen corner occupied by the women 
would seem clean and sweet enough when the 
meeting began, and the women could kneel on the 



TOBACCO USING. 



hardened tobacco spittle without soiling their silk 
dresses ; but after the meeting had lasted one or two 
days, no persons could kneel there without ruining 
their dresses or clothes. I have seen young ladies 
bite off the mouth end of their cigars, and request 
the lighted cigar then being smoked, with which to 
light their cigars, and the same is true of cigarettes. 

The old-fashioned large families of the earlier 
days of our Republic are still seen quite frequently 
in the South. As a rule, the families are large. I 
ate a Thanksgiving dinner in East Tennessee with 
a most remarkable family. The husband was not 
much, if any, above fifty, and the wife was not over 
forty-five, with her youngest child yet unweaned. 
And these persons were the parents of twenty-four 
children, and of several grandchildren. They were 
all present on the occasion named. Apparently in 
perfect health, they were robust, vigorous, and stal- 
wart. The people of East Tennessee were very 
earnest and pronounced in their rehgious fife. 
They were demonstrative. They were not timid, 
nor backward in making manifest their rapturous 
shouts and hallelujahs. It is refreshing to witness 
their zeal for the Master, and the matter-of-fact 
way in which they live their religion. They dis- 
play much sensibility. They are quite emotional. 



As United States Consul. 

325 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



MY appointment as United States consul came 
about in this way. I was under very severe 
strain during my five years of toil in reconstruction 
work in the South. My nervous system and my 
digestive organs gave way under the pressure. I 
ran down in flesh and in strength, until the impair- 
ment became very serious. The physician pro- 
nounced me incurable, unless, by a change of cli- 
mate and a sea voyage and absolute rest, the decay 
could be arrested. Senator Brownlow procured my 
appointment to the consulate at Kingston, Jamaica, 
by President Grant. The appointment was im- 
mediately confirmed by the United States Senate. 

As an experiment, I took passage at New York 
on a schooner, and I was upon the sea nearly three 
weeks. During the voyage I became so much 
worse, that it seemed unlikely that I should live 
to reach the island. I made all possible prepara- 
tions for the event, and gave the paper of directions 
for the captain's action when the vessel should ar- 
rive at Kingston, if in the meantime I should die 
at sea. Providentially my fife was spared. As 
soon as I landed I called a physician, who pro- 
nounced me curable. His prescriptions were few 
and simple. They were strictly followed. In a few 
weeks an improvement was obvious. In a short 
time it was apparent that the climate and the rest, 
together with the treatment, would result in re- 

327 



328 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

covery. I returned by steamer for my family, and 
we were soon domiciled in my new field, learning 
the details of the office, and arranging for my offi- 
cial consular residence in Kingston. 

There is no secular calling which a minister 
could follow that iS less objectionable than that of 
a consul of the United States. On the application 
of the Secretary of State, through the United States 
Legation at the Court of St. James, in Lyondon, an 
exequatur was given by the Queen of England, au- 
thorizing my official residence in Kingston, Ja- 
maica, as a consul of the United States, so long as 
my conduct should meet the approbation of the 
British Colonial Government and that of Great 
Britain. The duties are light. They would not 
require more than an average of an hour's time for 
each secular day, if they could be regularly dis- 
tributed ; but sometimes there would be a rush, and 
there would be crowded into three or four days 
work enough for a week, and then there would be 
an idle period of two or three weeks, when there 
would be absolutely nothing to do. 

The duties of the consulate relate almost ex- 
clusively to maritime affairs — the care of American 
ships which come into port. The vessels arriving 
require to be officially certified by the consul, and 
he gives them, when leaving, a clearance certificate. 
The American seamen in a foreign port are under 
the care of the American consul. Complaints of 
ill-treatment are looked into by him. Sick seamen 
are sent to a hospital, and proper nursing and care, 
clothing" and board, are furnished by the United 



DUTIES OF A CONSUL. 329 

States for all destitute American sailors arriving 
in American or in foreign vessels into the consular 
port. Ship's dues are paid into the consulate for 
the Seamen's Relief Fund, and the consul is the 
official guardian of all American sailors while in 
port. If the vessel has been impaired by weather 
or other misadventure, the consul may appoint a 
Board of Survey, who shall determine whether any, 
and, if any, what repairs shall be put upon the dis- 
abled ship ; and whether the vessel is seaworthy or 
otherwise. All this is necessary for the protection 
of American shipowners and underwriters. The 
consul charges certain specified fees for consular 
service of any kind, and these are paid by the ship, 
or by consignees or consignors of the vessel. In 
addition to these duties, the consul would naturally 
be expected to look after any American citizens 
sojourning in the island for a longer or shorter 
time. He has no funds at his disposal to relieve 
destitute Americans in port; but he would, of 
course, give them such needed attention and coun- 
sel as he might find practicable. 

The salary of the consul at Jamaica was two 
thousand dollars per annum. The perquisites were 
notarial fees for such extra copies of official papers 
as might be demanded by shippers or consignees 
or consignors, and also captains or others. These 
might amount to two hundred and fifty dollars per 
year. In addition to notarial fees, the consul has 
the power to appoint consular agents in other ship- 
*ping ports of the island besides his own port, one- 
half of the fees of which go to the consular agents, 



330 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

and the other half to the consul as perquisites. 
There were seven ports of entry on the island, and 
I appointed to these consular agents. The fees 
from them amounted to several hundred dollars. 
All of them increased the salary of the consul per- 
haps nearly or quite one thousand dollars. In the 
event of serious injury to an American ship coming 
into port, the Board of Survey appointed and the 
necessary processes required involve considerable 
expense. But all the service demanded is furnished 
at the expense of the shipowners or consignees for 
original copies, which belong to the office of the 
consulate. Then if certified copies are demanded, 
these are paid for as notarial fees. 

Sometimes, as the result of a survey, the ship is 
condemned as unseaworthy, in which case the ship 
is sold for the benefit of all concerned. It some- 
times happens that collusion between the captain 
and the consignee is suspected or charged. Then 
the case becomes seriously complicated. Not sel- 
dom, in such an event, suits are entered against the 
suspected parties by the owners or underwriters. 
In my consulate I found an American captain, who 
had been sued and cast into prison. He had been 
confined there for over a year, at his own cost for 
board and expenses. After considerable corre- 
spondence and delay I procured his release, and he 
was returned to his own country. 

During my consulate many of the natives of 
Cuba w^ere, as they are now, struggling for their 
independence against the tyranny of Spain. Sym- 
pathizers in the United States would assist them. 



THE STEAMER VIRGIN! US. 33 1 

and furnish them transportation of war supplies and 
ammunition. American steamers would come to 
Kingston for shipping supplies, or for refuge, and 
obtaining these, or perhaps finding Kingston a safe 
harbor or refuge from pursuit by Spanish cruisers, 
they would remain in my port for weeks. The 
Edgar Stuart, a small steamer, was several times 
in the harbor of Kingston, Jamaica, and remained 
there for longer or shorter periods. In the autumn 
of 1873, the steamer Virginius also came into my 
port for escape from Spanish pursuers. The cap- 
tain was chased into our waters by a Spanish war- 
vessel. The captain was so sorely beset, and his 
escape from capture was so narrow, that on his ar- 
rival he forsook his vessel, and made his way back 
to the United States by English steamer to Aspin- 
wall, and thence by the Pacific Steam Navigation 
lines to New York. I found the ship was duly 
registered as an American vessel, although her his- 
tory was not altogether regular and assuring. Dur- 
ing our late Civil War the Virginms was engaged 
in running the blockade of the Southern ports. On 
one of her trips she was captured by the blockaders, 
and condemned as a prize by the Government. 
After the war she was sold in the port of Mobile, 
February, 1866; but shortly afterwards she was 
again acquired by the United States. In 1870 she 
was resold to John F. Patterson. Patterson was 
reputed to have been an agent of the Carlist rebel- 
lion in Cuba. It was alleged that he purchased 
the Virginius for the sake of Ouesada and Bam- 
betta, well-known Cuban patriots. Bambetta was 



332 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

a passenger on the ill-fated ship when captured, and 
he was the first one shot at Santiago. Patterson 
obtained an American register from the port of 
New Orleans, duly authenticated by United States 
officials. In 1870 she sailed from New York, with 
the right, as against all other nations, to carry the 
American flag. When she sailed she cleared for a 
port in the Caribbean Sea, to which she went. She 
did not appear ever to have regularly cleared from 
any port in the United States. The capture of the 
captain, Joseph Fry, Bambetto, and many others of 
the crew and passengers followed. 

As the Virginius was left in the port of Jamaica 
without a captain, it became my duty to appoint 
a commander of the ship upon the nomination of 
the consignees of the vessel. The law required, 
however, that he must be an American citizen, and 
of experience and nautical ability and skill to navi- 
gate a ship safely over the seas of the world. Cap- 
tain Fry was in Kingston at the time, and he was 
often in the consulate. During this time the 
United States frigate Tennessee, a war steamer, was 
in port; and at one time when he was present the 
commander and some of the officers of the Ten- 
nessee came into my office, and I introduced them 
to Captain Fry. Their greeting was respectful; 
but not apparently very cordial. They spoke of 
having known Captain Fry when he was an officer 
in the United States navy. After they retired, Cap- 
tain Fry wept freely over the great mistake he had 
made in resigning from the naval service of the 
Republic, and in accepting a place in the Confed^ 



CAPTAIN FRY'S LAST LETTER. 



333 



erate navy. ''What a fool I was," said he ; '1 could 
have been in a good position, honored and comfort- 
able; but I lost all that, and now I am poor and 
forsaken." He was nominated by the consignees 
of the Virginiiis to be appointed to her command. 
I told them that I thought he was lawfully in- 
eligible, for the law requires that masters of Ameri- 
can ships should be American citizens, and I sup- 
posed he had lost his American citizenship by en- 
gaging in the service of the Confederacy; but he 
submitted to me his pardon papers from President 
Andrew Johnson, which restored him to citizen^ 
ship. After some expostulations with him in view 
of the dangers he incurred, and the sufferings his 
family might be obliged to endure if mishap at- 
tended his sailing, I appointed him captain of the 
Virginiiis. He said he had considered it all, and 
yet he must take the risks involved to gain bread 
for his wife and children. His case was very pa- 
thetic. I felt great sympathy for him, and when I 
learned that he had been captured and shot the 
news deeply affected me. His bearing during his 
trial and execution was honorable. He personally 
shook hands and vSaid farewell to his comrades of 
the ship. Before his execution, he addressed the 
following letter to his wife : 

CAPTAIN FRY'S FARBWBLIy IvBTTKR TO HIS WIFE. 

On Board the Spanish Man-of-War Tornado, ) 
Santiago de Cuba, November 6, iSjj. J 

De;ar, De:ar DiTA, — When I left you I had no 
idea that we should never meet again in this world ; 
but it seems strange to me that I should to-night, 



334 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

and on Annie's birthday, be calmly seated, on a beau- 
tiful moonlight night, in a most beautiful bay in Cuba, 
to take my last leave of you, my own dear^ sweet wife, 
and, with the thought of your own bitter anguish — 
my only regret at leaving. 

I have been tried to-day, and the president of 
the court-martial asked the favor of embracing me 
at parting, and clasped me to his heart. I have shaken 
hands with each of my judges, and the secretary of 
the court and the interpreter have promised me, as 
an especial favor, to attend my execution, which will, 
I am told, be within a few hours after my sentence 
is pronounced. 

I am told my death will be painless. In short, 
I have had a very cheerful and pleasant chat about 
my funeral, to w^hich I shall go a few hours from now ; 
how soon, I can not say yet. It is curious to see 
how I make friends. Poor Bambetta pronounced me 
a gentleman, and he was the brightest and bravest 
creature I ever saw. 

The priest who gave me communion on board this 
morning, put a double scapular around my neck, and 
a medalj which he "intends to wear himself. A young 
Spanish officer brought me a bright, new silk badge, 
with the Blessed Virgin stamped upon it, to wear 
to my execution for him, and a handsome cross, in 
some fair lady's handiwork. They are to be kept as 
relics of me. He embraced me affectionately in his 
room, with tears in his eyes. 

Dear sweetheart, you will be able to bear it for 
my sake, for I will be with you if God permits. Al- 
though I know my hours are short and few, I am 
not sad. I shall be with you right soon, dear Dita, 
and you will not be afraid of me. Pray for me, and 
I will pray with you. There is to be a fearful sacrifice 
of life, as I think, from the Virginiiis, and, as I think, 



THE SPANISH DIFFICULTY. 



335 



a needless one, as the poor people are unconscious 
of crime, and even of their fate up to now. I hope 
God will forgive me if I am to blame for it. 

If you write to President Grant he will probably or- 
der my pay, due when I resigned, to be paid to you 
after my death. People will be» kinder to you now, 
dear Dita; at least I hope so. Do not dread death 
when it comes to" you. It will be God's angel of rest — 
remember this. I hope my children will forget their 
father's harshness, and remember his love and anxiety 
for them. May they practice regularly their religion, 

and pray for him always. Tell the last act of 

my life w411 be a public profession of my faith and 
hope in Him of whom we need not be ashamed ; and 
it is not honest to withhold that public acknowledg- 
ment from any false modesty or timidity. May God 
bless and save us all ! Sweet, dear, dear Dita, we will 
soon meet again. Till then, adieu for the last time. 

Your devoted husband, Joseph Fry. 

The following article on the subject of the Vir- 
ginius and our strained relations with Spain ap- 
peared in the Western Christian Advocate, Decem- 
ber 31, 1873: 

THK SPANISH DIFFICULTY. 

The war fever against Spain on account of the 
Virginiits afifair has entirely subsided. The Fish-Polo 
protocol has been promptly and honorably carried 
out by the Spanish Government. The Virginiits has 
been returned, and the remaining passengers and crew 
have been surrendered. There is no reason to doubt 
that the remaining provisions of the treaty will also 
be observed. All this is matter for congratulation. 

In the meantime, upon the showing of the case 
before him, the Attorney-General has transmitted to 



336 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



the Secretary of State his written opinion upon the 
questions, whether or not the Virginiiis, at the time 
of her capture by the Tornado, was improperly, and 
without right, carrying the American flag. Referring 
to the provisions of our laws as to the ownership and 
registry of American vessels, the Attorne^y-General 
finds that the registry of the Virginius was fraudulently 
obtained ; that, instead of being owned by Americans, 
as the law requires, the ship was, in fact, owned by 
foreigners ; that only by false swearing was a registry 
obtained ; and, moreover, that the usual bond required 
in such cases was defective in having no sureties upon 
it. At the same time, the Attorne3-General main- 
tains "that she was as much exempt from interfer- 
ence on the high seas by another power, upon that 
ground, as though she had been lawfully registered." 
The right of Spain to capture a vessel of American 
register, and carrying the American flag, if found in 
her waters, assisting, or endeavoring to assist, the insur- 
rection in Cuba, is admitted by the Attorney-General, 
who says : "But she has no right to capture such a 
vessel on the high seas, upon an apprehension that, in 
violation of the neutrality or navigation law of the 
United States, she was on her way to assist said re- 
bellion. Spain may defend her territory and people 
from the hostile attack of what is, or appears to be, 
an American vessel ; but she has no jurisdiction what- 
ever over the question as to whether or not such 
vessel is on the high seas in violation of any law of 
the United States. Spain can not rightfully raise that 
question as to the Virginius ; but the United States 
may, and, if I understand the protocol, they have 
agreed to do it, and be governed by that agreement; 
and, without admitting that Spain would otherwise 
have any interest in the question, I decide that the 



SEIZURE OF THE VIRGINIUS. 337 



Virginius, at the time of her capture, was, without 
right and improperly, carrying the American flag/' 

The opinion of the Attorney-General as to the 
wrongfulness of the seizure of the Virginius upon the 
high seas is so fully in accordance with international 
law, as held by nearly all civilized Governments, in- 
cluding Spain, that we can not see how it can be 
successfully called into question. The fraud in pro- 
curing the register of the Virginius, and the unright- 
ful carrying of the United States flag, were offenses, 
not against Spanish law, but against American lav/. 
Of such offenses, not Spain, but the United States, 
is to be the trier and punisher. To allow for a moment 
that, under the apprehension that the Virginius had 
not regular papers, and did not lawfully carry the 
American flag, Spain had the right to seize her upon 
the high seas, adjudge, and condemn her, is utterly 
absurd. Such an admission as to any foreign power 
whatever, would place our commerce, our citizens, 
and their property, at the mercy or the caprice of 
any meddlesome Government which, with or without 
reason, might choose to annoy us. The American 
flag, when the right to carry it is covered by the 
usual papers, entitles the vessel so bearing it to as 
much immunity from assault as the soil of the United 
States is entitled to freedom from invasion by a for- 
eign power. To all legal intents, the deck of an Amer- 
ican ship is American soil. Spain has no more right 
to invade that soil on the deck of an American ship 
when in neutral waters than she would have to invade 
New York or Baltimore. It is granted that incon- 
venience may sometimes result by vessels procuring 
papers by fraud, but not half the wrong and injury 
which the admission of the right of search and seiz- 
ure upon the high seas would work. The illegal 

22 



338 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

bearing of the United States flag is a violation of 
American law. When the United States Government 
is unable to compel the observance of its own laws, 
or to punish their violation, it may choose a guardian, 
and ask for assistance. Until our Government reaches 
that unhapp}^ condition, the assumption that Spain 
may adjudicate for the United States is simply 
monstrous. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



THE war steam-frigate Tennessee was sent by 
President Grant to Samana Bay, in the island 
of St. Domingo, with a select company, acting as 
a Commission, to make observations in that bay, 
and learn whether or not the President had vio- 
lated any law, or had compromised the Govern- 
ment of the United States in his administration of 
the affairs of that grant from the Haytians of the 
use of the bay as a coaling station. The persons 
composing that Commission included, Manton 
Marble, of the New York World; A. D. White, of 
the Cornell University; Frederick Douglass; Sena- 
tor B. F. Wade, of Ohio; and perhaps others. 
Bishop Arthur Cleveland Coxe, of the Western 
Diocese of New York, was a passenger from Hayti 
to New York by that vessel, as I now remember. 
The ship remained in Kingston Harbor a week or 
more. 

An incident connected with Frederick Douglass 
interested me somewhat. On Saturday, as we were 
riding about Kingston, Mr. Douglass inquired of 
me where he could study the question of color- 
caste to the best advantage. I told him Wesley 
Chapel, and I tendered him the use of my pew in 
that church, explaining that, as I was to preach in 
another Wesleyan church on that day, I regretted 
my necessary absence from Wesley; but telling him 
to inquire of the janitor for the American consul's 

339 



1 



340 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

pew, and to occupy that, because from that he 
would have a good view of the situation. The next 
day after, I was with him again. He said he was 
deHghted with his attendance at Wesley. There 
was a congregation of twenty-five hundred or 
more. The seats were occupied by the same fam- 
ily; the white father at one end of the pew, and a 
black wife at the other end, with the children be- 
tween them of various shades of mahogany; and 
vice versa, the black father at the one end of the 
line, and a blue-eyed English blonde at the other. 
He said the singing, led by a powerful organ and 
a chorus of two thousand sweet voices, more re- 
sembled his ideal of heaven than any other he had 
ever had. As for the mingling of bloods and of 
races, he described it as a mingling together of 
pepper and salt all over the house. "Why," said 
he, ''there was not the faintest scent of color-caste 
about it." 

I gr-eatly admired Bishop Coxe. He was gen- 
ial, frank, refined, intellectual, and intelligent, and, 
withal, a man of large catholicity. His father was 
Rev. Samuel Hanson Cox, the once renowned 
celebrity of Brooklyn, as a Calvinistic divine of the 
Presbyterian denomination ; and yet his son was an 
Arminian in doctrine and of prelatical Church pro- 
clivities. This he explained by saying that his 
mother was a Church woman of pronounced Armin- 
ian views. He expressed a high respect for the 
ministers and work of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. He said they were providentially God's 
great breakwater to save this country from going 



MV RESIDENCE IN JAMAICA. ^ 34 1 

through Unitarianism, as a half-way house, into 
open infidelity. Long before he was elected a 
bishop, when he was rector of a wealthy Church 
in Baltimore, he had planted a mission in Santo 
Domingo, which he had ever since maintained, and 
to which he had been accustomed to go as often 
as once in a year, or once in two years, to study 
the growth and the work of that Christian plant, 
which he had established among the blacks of that 
island. 

My residence of three years in Jamaica with 
my family afforded me very great pleasure. I trav- 
eled with my family all over the island, preached 
and made addresses in all the chief cities and towns, 
shared in the generous hospitality of the people, 
recovered my health, and I have ever since held in 
delightful remembrance my three years of sojourn 
as a consul in that "beautiful isle of the sea." It 
would be an almost criminal omission not to speak 
of my relations with the Wesleyan ministers and 
their familes, who made us welcome to their homes 
and chapels, and to the quarterly-meetings ^nd 
breakfasts and teas, which were quite frequent — - 
Rev. George Sargeant, the chairman of the district ; 
Samuel Smyth, Henry Bunting, George Geddes, 
and many others. William West succeeded George 
Sargeant as chairman of the district. He was a 
veteran who had seen much service on the gold 
coast of Africa. He and the other Wesleyan min- 
isters and official laymen united in a beautiful and 
highly appreciated testimonial, expressing their re- 
spect and esteem for me, as did also the Masonic 



342 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

bodies of Kingston. My relations with the min- 
isters of other denominations were very pleasant 
and enjoyable. 

I must not fail to speak of John Martin, prin- 
cipal for many years of the Lady Mico School — 
a normal school for the training of teachers. He 
was a fine scholar, and a wise and successful gov- 
ernor and teacher in the institution of that name in 
Kingston. I am not sure that he graduated ; yet I 
think he did. Upon my representation, the Athens 
College conferred on him the degree of LL. D., 
a dignity and honor which he richly deserved. 

These recollections of the three years of my 
stay in Jamaica will always be a green oasis in the 
memories of Hfe. I give the principal facts which 
I learned of its history and condition, for the enter- 
tainment and instruction of my readers. 

Jamaica is an interesting island, whether viewed 
as to its history, population, cHmate, soil, or pro- 
ductions. Lying adjacent to our Republic, under 
the very shadow of our country, and within four 
or five days of steamboat sail of our chief Atlantic 
seaports, she is related to us by important present 
and prospective conditions. 

Except the Bahama Islands, all the W est India 
islands are sometimes called the Antilles. Those 
forming, like a string of pearls, the eastern boun- 
dary of the Caribbean Sea, are called the Lesser 
Antilles ; and those on the western rim of the Carib- 
bean Sea, including Cuba, Jamaica, and Santo 
Domingo, are called the Greater Antilles. The 
Lesser Antilles stretch away eastward, from the 



• 



POSITION OF JAMAICA. 343 

Gulf of Mexico to the meridian of Paria in South 
America, say sixteen hundred miles. The name 
Antilles was given by mistake to the West India 
Islands. Before the discovery of America by Co- 
lumbus, a tradition existed, that lying west of the 
Azores, which were west of Africa, there lay a land 
called Antillse, whose position was faintly shown 
on the early maps of the cosmographers. Nearly 
eight months after Columbus returned to Europe, 
it was held that the islands he had discovered were 
the fabled Antillse, and Cuba and Hayti were 
known as the Antillse before a single Hnk of the 
Caribbean chain had been discovered. 

In the Greater Antilles lies Jamaica. There are 
in the Lesser Antilles thirteen British islands, 
scarcely five "thousand miles in area, all of them of 
much less than the area of Jamaica, and relatively 
of far less importance. And so I am sure my read- 
ers will have interest in my facts and descriptions 
of that beautiful island. Those facts were gathered 
from personal observation in a three years' resi- 
dence in the island. Jamaica has been styled, ''The 
brightest jewel in the British crown." Its peerless 
beauty has never been traced by the most skilled 
painter. No statist has yet computed its undevel- 
oped resources. Its geographical position and its 
remarkable history have been the theme of able 
writers. But there is a still more potent cause for 
appreciating this singularly beautiful island. It is 
my profound conviction, that all America, includ- 
ing, also, its adjacent islands, should properly be- 
long to the United States, and they are necessary 



344 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



to her fullest and destined development; and for 
these reasons I am deeply interested in all that 
relates to the West Indies. Four hundred and six 
years ago Columbus discovered America. Four 
hundred and three years ago Columbus, probably 
on his second westward voyage, sailed into Saint 
Ann's Bay, on the north side of the island. In a 
part of Saint Ann's Bay is a cove, called yet "Chris- 
topher's Cove," where he anchored his ships and 
wintered and where he lay in infirmity and suffer- 
ing and mutiny, the gentle natives supplying his 
wants. 

Jamaica abounds with woods and streams, and 
from the sea-line to the loftiest mountain summits, 
eight thousand feet above the sea-level, the sur- 
face is clad in richest livery of grass, ^and flowers 
and shrubs. Its vivid green and gorgeous flora 
gained for it at the earliest of its settlement the 
name, Xamaica — the land of springs and verdure 
and forests. This aboriginal name, Anglicized to 
Jamaica, it has ever since borne. Discovered by 
Spaniards, it became a Spanish colony, and re- 
mained such for one hundred and sixty-one years. 
In that time the gentle natives, who had welcomed 
the great discoverer and had ministered to his 
needs, fell victims to the ruthless rapacity and vio- 
lence of their conquerors. Like frostwork in the 
sun, these natives melted away from a half million 
to one hundred thousand or less. In 1655, Oliver 
Cromwell, then Lord High Protector of England, 
sent General Venable and Admiral Penn to the 
West Indies, ostensibly to make reprisals in the 



HISTORY OF JAMAICA. 



345 



Spanish main for injuries done to British com- 
merce; but really to capture and subject Santo 
Domingo, and all this without a formal declaration 
of war. The expedition failed. The commanders 
disagreed. It is alleged that one or both of them 
were suspected of disloyalty to their chief. Feel- 
ing, perhaps, that they should not return wdthout 
having achieved anything to add to their luster, 
they attacked and conquered Jamaica, and planted 
upon it the Cross of St. George, which has stamped 
an immeasurable impress on the civilization of the 
world. From that day to this, for two hundred and 
forty years, Jamaica has been a British colony. 
For two hundred and ten years she was a charter 
colony; i. e., a self-governing colony. In 1865, 
during a momentary panic from an alleged uprising 
of the Negroes, she surrendered her charter, and 
requested Great Britain to rnake her a crown col- 
ony altogether, without self-governing power, hav- 
ing even no authority to elect either a constable 
or a police officer. 

Venable and Penn were cast into the Tower of 
London. They were tried by court-martial for 
their treasonable failure to do something more sig- 
nal. Vexed at the smallness of their acquisition, 
Cromwell offered Jamaica to the Colony of Massa- 
chusetts. This historical fact is not in the books. 
It is not, however, any the less true. I give it as 
authentic. My voucher is the Rev. Professor E. S. 
Starbuck, of Berea College, in Kentucky, formerly 
a missionary in Jamaica in the service of the Ameri- 
can Missionary Society. He claims to have dis- 



346 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



covered documentary proof in Jamaica of the truth 
of the statement. Whatever we have since become 
as an expansive, acquisitive Nation, adding Flor- 
ida, Louisiana, Texas, Cahfornia, and later still 
the icebergs and seals — aye, and the gold-fields of 
Alaska — we were then but callow fledglings. 
Cromwell's offer was declined. Had Massachusetts 
accepted the largess of Cromwell, the history of 
England and of the United States might have been 
far different from what it has been. 

Jamaica lies centrally in the Caribbean Sea, be- 
tween north latitude 17 degrees and 39 minutes, and 
18 degrees and 34 minutes. It is one hundred and 
seventy-five miles long, by sixty-five miles wide. 
It contains six thousand four hundred square miles, 
and four millions and eighty thousand scjuare acres. 
Ohio is six times as large as Jamaica. Jamaica is 
more than half as large as Maryland, three times 
as large as Delaware, and five times as large as 
Rhode Island in area, and six times as large in 
population. On a clear day, Cuba can be seen 
from the mountains of Saint Ann's, directly north 
of Jamaica, ninety miles distant, and Santo Do- 
mingo about as far east. Jamaica occupies a very 
central position geographically. It is fourteen 
hundred and sixty miles south from New York, 
and five hundred miles from the Isthmus of Darien. 
It is in the direct line between England and Aus- 
tralia, and directly on the line between New York 
and Rio Janeiro, South America. Its geographical 
position and commercial importance are easily 
shown. 



OCEAN AND LAND SURFACE. 



347 



It is not accidental that three-fourths of the 
world's surface is water. The oceans of earth are 
the highways of commerce. Intercourse and com- 
merce are important factors in the civilization and 
progress of the world. The distribution of the 
oceans is peculiar. There is less land in the West- 
ern than in the Eastern Hemisphere, and far more 
north of the equator than south of it. The land is 
distributed into four grand divisions. North and 
South America, with their adjacent islands, make 
the western division, or hemisphere. In area, this 
division is 14,766,336 square miles. The conti- 
nents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, with their sys- 
tems of islands, have an area more than twice as 
large as the Western Hemisphere, or 32,500,000 
square miles. The area of the West India Islands 
is one-sixteenth that of the Western Hemisphere; 

e., 922,896 square miles. If now one should take 
two maps of the world, say Mercator's projection 
in duplicate hemispheres, and lay them alongside 
each other, it will be seen that North America lies 
between Europe, Asia, and Africa in the east, and 
Asia on the west, with broad oceans on each side 
of her. One of these oceans separating them is 
five thousand miles wide, and the other three thou- 
sand miles. No other continent in the world is so 
situated. This is not accidental. Its importance 
to North Asia and the West Indies can not be over- 
estimated. With the single exception of Suez, one 
hundred miles wide, in the Eastern Hemisphere, 
and Darien in the Western, fifty miles wide, God 
has made water communication around the world. 



348 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

on its most populous zone. Commerce has com- 
pelled the opening of the Suez Canal. It will com- 
pel a hke canal in the Western Hemisphere, and 
then the waterway of commerce and travel around 
the world on its most populous zone will be com- 
plete; and, by the way, Jerusalem will be on that 
line. There is now a railroad from Joppa to Jeru- 
salem, and it will be soon extended east to the 
Gulf of Persia. 

There is still another fact. Jamaica is in the 
midst of a remarkable sea, directly on the water- 
line of travel and commerce around the world, on 
the zone of the world's greatest populations, and 
therefore on the line where the business and travel 
of the world will be the greatest, and it also lies 
right on the line of the north and south commerce 
and travel of the world between New York and 
South America. In the earHer times, W ashington 
and others of the fathers of the United States held 
that this separation of our country from all other 
lands was a Providential fact, insuring us from 
harmful contact with all other nations, so indicat- 
ing segregation and isolation from all other nations 
as the wisest policy. But steam and electricity and 
commerce have forbidden us longer to indulge in 
this dream. If we were disposed to hide within 
our shell and avoid contact with other peoples, 
we could not if we would, and we should not if we 
could. Other nations would not let us, and our 
aggressive nature and the demands of commerce 
and travel and the world's progress would forbid. 
We must intermeddle and intermingle with all other 



TH'O GREAT MID-CONTINENT SEAS. 349 

peoples, or fall into the rear, while other nations 
lead the van ; or, asserting our vim, vigor, and vic- 
tory, we must lead the procession, and we must 
have virtue enough and wisdom enough to profit 
ourselves and the race by this intermeddling and 
intermingling. 

There are two most remarkable seas in the 
world, twin seas. One of them is in the Eastern 
Hemisphere, and the other in the Western. They 
are both so nearly alike in area and conditions 
and relations, as to seem almost hke twin seas. On 
the shores of the one sea the cradle of science was 
rocked. On the shores of the other, the mound- 
builders and the Mexicans, if they are not one and 
the same, roamed and hunted and offered their 
human sacrifices. On the waters of the one, Solo- 
mon's ships carried peacocks, ivory and gold, and 
myrrh and spices. On the waters of the other, 
the mound-builders propelled their bark canoes. 
On the shores of the one sea dwelt Cadmus, the 
father of letters, and Priam and Socrates and Sen- 
eca, kings of men. The shores of the other sea 
were traversed by unknown races. One of these 
seas divides Europe from Africa. The other di- 
vides North and South America. As on the shores 
of the one sea the cradle of the infancy of science 
was rocked, so on the shores of the other sea shall 
the highest, grandest, and most glorious results 
of science and morality and religion be reached and 
illustrated. 

The northern boundary of the great western 
sea are the Bahama Islands and the United States. 



350 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

The southern and western boundary are South and 
Central America. The Windward West India Isl- 
ands, or Lesser Antilles, like a setting of pearls, 
are the eastern boundary. The western sea is 1,970 
miles long by 560 miles wide. These seas have 
practically a like area. The Mediterranean Sea 
has an area of 1,000,000 square miles. The Carib- 
bean has an area of 1,100,000 square miles. In the 
eastern sea there are sixty-four islands, large and 
small, some of them of great historic fame. These 
islands have an area of 32,000 square miles, and a 
population of 4,000,000, or 130 persons to the 
square mile. There are seventy-five islands in the 
Caribbean Sea, with an area of 86,000 square miles, 
or nearly three times as many square miles as in its 
sister sea, and a population of four million persons, 
or forty-five to the square mile. 

As America is centrally located between the 
other continents, so is Jamaica to the other islands 
in the Caribbean Sea, and also central to North 
and South America. Jamaica is nearer to the Isth- 
mus of Darien than any other islands in the Carib- 
bean, and therefore it holds the key position of 
the isthmus. Hence its incomparable commercial 
value. When commerce and travel in largely in- 
creased ratio shall take their way around the world, 
Jamaica is on the direct line of that movement. 
When the United States does tenfold its present 
business with South America, Jamaica vvill be its 
principal stopping-place. Populations that are 
touched and connected by rivers and seas are most 
important, and are soonest and most perfectly civil- 



POPULATION OF JAMAICA. 



ized. Secluded peoples come on very gradually. 
The East Indies are more important than Central 
Asia or Central Africa. Insular countries, for the 
same reason, are more advanced than continental 
countries. And then, moreover, peoples lying in 
the paths of the world's commerce and travel ac- 
quire wealth and elegance and civilization. All this 
applies to Jamaica. 

By the census of 1871, the population of Ja- 
maica is 506,154, as follows: Whites, 13,100, a de- 
crease of 715 below the census of 1861 ; mulattoes, 
100,346, an increase of 19,281 over the showing of 
the census of 1861 ; blacks, 372,707, an increase of 
46,333 over the showing of the census of 1861. 
The total increase of population, 64,890, an in- 
crease for the decade of 1 5 per cent, or an increase 
of per cent per annum. The whites decreased 
f of one per cent ; the colored (or mulatto) people 
increased 23 per cent, and the blacks 13 per cent. 
By the census of 1881, the whites were 12,315, a 
decrease of nearly one per cent. The whole popu- 
lation in 1 88 1 was 585,000, an increase of 79,846, 
or 16 per cent; mulattoes, 128,468, an increase of 
28 per cent; blacks, 444,217, an increase of 13 per 
cent. In the decade ending in 1881, the whites had 
decreased 6 per cent, the mulattoes had increased 
24 per cent, and the blacks had increased 13 per 
cent. This showing proves two things: I. The 
healthfulness of Jamaica; 2. The greater virility 
and fruitfulness of the mulattoes over the blacks, 
and also the greater vigor of the mulattoes than 
of the blacks. It has usually been thought that 



352 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



the mulattoes were more sterile and the blacks 
more fruitful than the mulattoes. These figures 
prove the contrary. 

Educationally, the people of Jamaica display 
creditable conditions. All the primary schools are 
parochial schools. Each religious body has pa- 
rochial schools. Forty per cent of the population 
can read and write, and are attending school. Sev- 
enty-one thousand are able to read and write. 
Eighty-one thousand can read. Attending school, 
forty-one thousand. In all, 194,000, or one in three 
of the population can read or write, or both. 
There are four hundred and forty schools under 
Government inspection, and therefore receiving 
money from the Government. The Government 
pays $78,000 per year, $2.36 for each scholar. 
There are two hundred endowed, or private, 
schools, making one school for each ninety-nine 
of the school population. Total sum annually ex- 
pended for education, $200,000, an average of five 
dollars for each enrolled scholar, and $3.25 for each 
one of the school population. The branches taught 
are primary. In studies requiring imitation and 
memory, the blacks excel the whites and mulattoes. 
In all others the blacks are little, if any, behind 
them. Many of the blacks and miulattoes are thor- 
oughly educated. Some of them are graduates of 
Oxford, Edinburgh, and Dublin. Some of them, 
both of men and women, are of commanding pres- 
ence, graceful in form, and refined in manners. 
The public ofifices are ef¥ectively filled by the col- 
ored and black people; lawyers, editors, phy- 



MORALITY IN JAMAICA. 



353 



sicians, and ministers. Richard Hill (mulatto) was 
an accomplished Belles Lettres scholar and natural- 
ist. Edward Fraser, a Wesleyan minister, was both 
learned and eloquent. So was Samuel Smyth, 
under whose ministry I sat for three years. 

A current but mistaken idea ''held by foreigners 
visiting Jamaica," is that the Jamaicans are people 
of lax morals. Persons passing through the island 
have seen only the coal-stokers and street gamins, 
and have formed their conclusion as to the whole 
people from the specimens they saw. The rural 
population and very many of the townspeople own 
their homesteads. The Churches administer rigid 
moral discipline. One-half the people either at- 
tend Church, or are members of Churches. There 
are four hundred churches, or one church to every 
three hundred and forty of the population. In the 
United States the proportion is one church to each 
five thousand of the population. There are sev- 
enty-five thousand Church members, or one to 
seven of the population. There are two hundred 
thousand Church sittings, and one hundred and 
fifty thousand regular attendants upon Divine wor- 
ship. Surely these facts prove that the Jamaicans 
are neither vicious nor degraded. Eighty-eight 
thousand of the people are married. There are 
six thousand widowers and seventeen thousand 
widows. One-fifth of the whole population either 
are married, or they have been married, and are 
widowers and widows. Two-fifths of the whole 
population are born in wedlock. Surely such a 
people are virtuous and happy. 
23 



354 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 



Violent crimes are unknown. I have traveled 
by night and by day all over the island with my 
family, without the slightest fear of interruption. 
The sugar estates have to send messengers on foot 
and alone to bring money from the banks to pay 
their hands, carrying upon their persons from 
$1,500 to $3,000. They are never molested nor 
robbed. One instance occurred in half a century 
where a messenger with money was robbed. In 
1870 over $500,000 were deposited in savings 
banks. When it is remembered that labor wages 
are from twenty-five cents to thirty cents a day, 
these deposits are wonderful. There are 18,000 
Wesleyans, 90 churches, 20 parsonages, and 
Church property valued at $500,000. In 1871 
these Wesleyans raised for religious uses $50,000, 
an average of three dollars per year per member. 
Other denominations approximate the Wesleyans 
in these figures. There are $2,500,000 in the sav- 
ings banks. Only two-thirds of the island are 
under cultivation. On estates where sugar-cane 
has been grown on the same land for a hundred 
years, the yield is still undiminished. 

Kingston has a population of forty thousand. 
There are a dozen other towns with populations 
varying from one thousand to ten thousand. The 
products of Jamaica are sugar, coffee, pimento, gin- 
ger, arrov\^root, sago, indigo, oranges, limes, shad- 
dock, grapes, guava, figs, mangoes, mangosteens, 
sour-sop, cherry moyer, sweet-sop, star-apples, nut- 
megs, mace, cinnamon, yams, sweet potatoes, 



PRODUCTS OF JAMAICA. 



355 



achey, honey, cocoanuts, bread-fruit, senna, pine- 
apples, bananas. 

The woods are, logwood, fustic, ebony, brazil- 
itis, fiddlewood, lignum-vitse, sandahvood, cedar, 
sanders-wood, mahogany. Mangoes make a large 
part of the food of the islanders. During the 
mango season, the consumption of flour falls off 
one-half. Cinchona and tea are successfully culti- 
vated. Bananas are largely exported. 

The flora of Jamaica is gorgeous. The night- 
blooming cereus is abundant. The Victoria Regia 
is one of the largest flowers I ever saw. The leaves 
are varnished green, on stems capable of support- 
ing a man. The leaves are two feet by five 
feet, and the flower, wdiich opens only in the night, 
has a disk eighteen inches in diameter, of wonder- 
fully brilliant hues. The palm-tree is indigenous. 
There are ninety species. The baobab, or silk 
cotton-tree, deserves special mention. It grows 
immensely large. It is found in all tropical regions 
in the world. Its roots and branches are lateral or 
horizontal. A baobab-tree, near Kingston, casts 
a shadow at noon of two hundred and fifty feet in 
diameter. It has singular habits. One-third of the 
tree is in bloom, one-third in fruit, and one-third in 
leaf only. The F'lcus indicns, wild fig, is a parasite, 
which has great affinity for the baobab. It fastens 
its tendrils at the ground and surrounds the trunk, 
winding itself in close coils around every part of 
the tree, until the tree is literally choked to death; 
and then, as the lateral limbs, when dead, could 



356 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

not bear the suspended horizontal coils of the fig, 
unless supported, the fig drops lines to the ground 
from the limbs, which take root and support the 
overloaded limbs; and when the tree, which fur- 
nished a scaffolding for the wild fig, is dead, the 
parasite is supported by a hundred additional 
trunks, and the wild fig becomes the banyan-tree 
of the Indies. The cedar-tree of Jamaica, unlike 
its kindred tree of the north, has open, spreading 
branches and large leaves like those of the linn, 
and yet the three varieties of tropical cedar, the red, 
white, and yellow, have the perfume and colors of 
the cedars of the north. 

The climate of Jamaica is delightful. It is not 
so hot at any time as the summer climate of Maine 
or of Oregon. The trade-winds reduce the heat to 
a comfortable degree. Its insular condition pre- 
vents the heat from becoming insufferable. In ^ 
May and October, the rainy season, the trade-winds 
cease, and then the temperature becomes extreme 
and unpleasant ; but by ascending the mountains 
the heat can be graduated to the climate of the 
temperate zone, at the pleasure of the person. 

Hurricanes are of rare occurrence. Every 
twenty or thirty 3^ears furnishes an occasional wind 
storm, which sweeps with great fierceness and de- 
structiveness. The tropical rains are most abun- 
dant. I went once from my office to my hotel in 
a rain. The streets in five minutes were deluged, 
requiring me to wade in several inches depth of 
water, and an umbrella was of little more protection 
than an old-fashioned sieve. I have known the best 



CLIMATE OF JAMAICA. 



357 



climates of the different parts of North America. 
I have breathed the dry air of Mexico and of Lower 
Cahfornia; 1 have scaled the Sierras and the 
Rockies; I have traversed the deserts of our in- 
terior; I have felt the bracing air of British Co- 
lumbia and of Alaska ; but I have never, an*ywhere, 
found a climate so delicious and agreeable as that 
of Jamaica. The cHmate of Cuba and Santo Do- 
mingo is almost precisely like that of Jamaica. 
Earthquakes are common. Some of them are very 
destructive. Mountains have been riven from sum- 
mit to base. Enormous fissures have been made 
by them. Mount Sinai, a few miles east from 
Kingston, was riven, and a slice of the mountain 
was cut down for two thousand feet as smooth as 
a knife could cut through cheese, and thrown off, 
covering a large penn,"^ and burying houses, men, 
and animals. The mountains of St. Thomas in 
the vale were severed to the base, and a river winds 
its way through the cleft made by the earthquake. 
In 1692 the great earthquake buried the larger part 
of Port Royal in the sea, with the dwellings and 
the thousands of people. In places the earth 
opened, and then closed again. I read of Robert 
Goldy, on his tombstone, that he fell into a crevasse, 
and then was thrown out of that into the bay, and 
escaped by swimming and survived the accident* 
many years. The bodies of the dead filled the air 
with the noisome pestilence. Jamaica has no dan- 
gerous beasts of prey. There are no venomous ser- 



* Penn is the word for a ranch or an estate. 



358 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

pents. But there are lizards in plenty. Centipedes, 
scorpions, and tarantulas abound ; but these are not 
fatal in their sting. Chigres, or a species of ver- 
min, will pierce the skin, and deposit their eggs 
under it, which must be extracted, or serious injury 
will follow. 

Jamaica has a fine system of roads, well graded 
and ballasted, across the mountains and around the 
shores. The health of the island is widely cele- 
brated. The yellow fever sometimes visits the 
cities and becomes epidemic; but this results from 
the filth of the larger cities. The island is beau- 
tiful beyond description. Approached from the 
north side, the land swells from the sea in grace- 
fully-rounded hills, between which streams and 
waterfalls are born. On the south side the sur- 
face is more irregular and craggy. The irregular- 
ities of surface, and the serrated, comb-like appear- 
ance of the mountain profile cut against the blue 
sky, are of thrilling majesty and power. Here a 
chasm, there a bold outline; here the gentle slope, 
there the sharp acclivity ; forest, and field, and tilth, 
and meadow, — make up a perspective never sur- 
passed, and, once witnessed, never forgotten. Mr. 
TroUope, quoting Christopher Columbus's de- 
scription of Jamaica, describes it, as seen from the 
^southern approach, as resembHng a sheet of writ- 
ing paper crumpled and compressed, and then left 
with all its creases and folds upon it. 

The nearer view is hone the less enchanting. 
Take a buggy-ride through the famous Bog Walk, 
rived by the earthquake from mountain summit 



LANDSCAPES IN JAMAICA. 



359 



to base, through which meanders the Rio Cobra; 
cross Mount Diabolo, three thousand feet high, on 
a grade so easy that your horses can trot up the 
whole ascent; through the parish of Saint Ann's, 
and see the well-inclosed meadows weaving with 
luxuriant guinea grass, and coffee-walks and orange 
and pimento groves, redolent of the most exquisite 
perfume, or gold and purple with their ample fruit- 
age and foliage, and see the flocks and herds, — and 
you have such a vision of beauty you are ready 
to say with the delighted Queen of Sheba, "The 
half has never yet been told." 



Fifth fmxai. 

Work in Ohio. 



1 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



RETURNING to the United States from con- 
sular service in October, 1873, from which I 
had long before resigned, I accepted the position 
of corresponding secretary of the American Colo- 
-nization Society, with headquarters at Cincinnati, 
Ohio. I was elected to this position by the man- 
agers of that Society, upon the recommendation of 
Bishop Simpson. I removed to Cincinnati with 
my family late in October of 1873. I attended the 
annual meeting of the managers and members of 
the Colonization Society, the same fall, in Wash- 
ington, D. C. I preached on the colonization of 
Africa from the colored freedmen of the South, in 
Foundry Church, on the Sunday of my stay in 
Washington. Soon after, I made a trip to Savan- 
nah, Georgia, from which place I shipped some 
thirty ol" forty freedmen and freedwomen from 
Hawkinsville, Georgia. All went ofif in high spir- 
its, except one, who was told by some meddlesome 
person, that they would be taken away from New 
York, and then, when out at sea, they would be 
sent as slaves to some slaveholding country, prob- 
ably Cuba. His suspicions got the better of his 
wishes, and he declined to go. 

Reaching home, I found my wife's health so 
much worse that I resigned my secretaryship, to 
spend all my time in caring for her. Her disease 
was Angina pectoris, disease of the heart. In May, 

363 



364 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



1874, after six months of distressing illness, her 
gentle spirit passed away from earth to be with 
God. Her disease caused her intense suffering, and 
it superinduced dropsy. For nearly six months 
she was unable to lie down. She described the 
pain in her heart to be as torturing as though a 
thousand needles were piercing it. When the 
council of doctors pronounced her case hopeless,, 
in answer to her inquiries, she said to them : 'It is 
well. I am not surprised. I am ready." When 
they had retired, she sang two verses — the first and 
the last — of the hymn : 

"When I can read my title clear 
To mansions in the skies, 
I '11 bid farewell to every fear, 
And wipe my weeping eyes. 

Then I shall bathe my weary soul 

In seas of heavenly rest, 
And not a wave of trouble roll 

Across my peaceful breast." 

» 

When the end came, and for which she had 
prearranged, it was morning. She said, think 
the time has come for our responsive reading of 
the twenty-third Psalm." She sat propped up in 
bed, and she was leaning against me, every now 
and then pressing against me, as if to escape the 
torturing pain of her heart. I began, ''The Lord 
is my shepherd." She responded, "I shall not 
want." I continued repeating, pausing at each 
comma for her voice. When I read, "Yea, though 
1 walk through the valley of the shadow of death," 
she once more and feebly added, "I will fear no 



DEATH OF MRS. PEARNE, 



evil." A moment after she peacefully expired. As 
the last breath ceased, her face, which had been 
drawn in Hnes of agony, relaxed, and a smile over- 
spread her features. Her eyes were upturned, and 
a look of surprise and deUght illuminated her coun- 
tenance. It seemed as though the new scenes un- 
folding to her were enrapturing. 

For more than thirty-three years she had been 
a faithful, loving wife. Our hearts were wonder- 
fully knit together in love. The honeymoon had 
never gone down. For ten years she had shared, 
unmurmuringly, the trials and crosses incident to 
the itinerancy in New York and Pennsylvania. 
For another fourteen years she had cheerfully ac- 
cepted the rigors and privations of frontier Hfe in 
Oregon. Five years, w^ithout a complaint, she was 
under the heavy strain of the reconstruction work 
in Tennessee. Part of the time in Oregon I was 
able to spend, each quarter, only one week in thir- 
teen at our home, and she had remained almost 
alone the other twelve weeks. She said to me, after 
we had gone from Tennessee, that I had never left 
her to go on my district there, that she did not 
have a shuddering fear that I would be assassinated 
and brought home dead. Three years we had lived 
together in Jamaica, and nearly all the last year 
of her life she was an invalid. In her last illness 
-she advised me to re-enter the active work of the 
itinerancy, saying she believed I would be more 
useful and happy in that service than in any other. 
Noble woman ! Heroic and brave ! For all the 
years of our union my home was the dearest and 



366 S.IXTV-O.YE YEARS OF ITINERANT JVORK. 



brightest spot on earth. We bore her remains to 
Cortland, N. Y. In the beautiful cemetery of that 
lovely village sleep the ashes of my mother and 
father and of my child. There her dust will slum- 
ber until the trumpet of the archangel and the 
voice of the Son of God shall break the long silence. 

The Methodist Preachers' Meeting of Cincin- 
nati had been very kind to me during the year of 
my residence in that city. They unanimously in- 
vited me to become a member of the Cincinnati 
Conference, which I did, by transfer, in September, 
1874. The session that year was held in Wilming- 
ton, Clinton County. Bishop R. S. Foster pre- 
sided. Bishop Ames was present most of the ses- 
sion. He strongly urged me. to go w^ith him to 
Minnesota, and take work in a leading Church in 
Minneapolis. I should probably have done so, but 
for the invitation of the Cincinnati Preachers' 
Meeting. Then, moreover, I had for ten years 
been intimately associated in Oregon with Rev. 
Francis S. Hoyt, D. D., who, in that new country, 
had been the efficient president of the Willamette 
University, and who was at this time living in Cin- 
cinnati, and editing most effectively the JVcstcm 
Christian Advocate. Then, also, I had become 
pleasantly acquainted with the brave old hero. Rev. 
R. S. Rust, in the years of reconstruction. For 
ten years our fellowship had been edifying and 
delightful. It is not strange, then, that under these 
conditions 1 should prefer remaining in the Cin- 
cinnati Conference, to adventuring again in the 
new Northwest. I was stationed in Grace Church, 



AT GRACE CHURCH, DAYTON. 



Dayton. I went there without seeking the ap- 
pointment. Indeed, I did not personally know a 
single member there, nor had I ever preached in 
that church, nor seen it to know it. 

When I went up on Saturday to enter upon my 
charge I went to the hotel, the Beckel House. 
After supper I walked out, and, drawn by the lights 
and the music, I went into the Public Square, 
where the Woman's Christian Association were 
giving a social entertainment. Here I met Rev. 
W. A. Robinson, stationed that year in Raper, 
Dayton, with whom I had had a Conference room 
acquaintance, and he introduced me to several of 
my members. Thus began my itinerant ministry 
in Ohio. Grace Church had a lovely and elegant 
church edifice, which cost one hundred thousand 
dollars, and a membership of six or seven hundred. 
Here were spent three happy, prosperous, and, I 
trust, useful years. Some of the friendships formed 
in this charge were among the most delightful I 
have ever known. Two changes were effected dur- 
ing this pastorate, whioJi, I have no doubt, were 
conducive to the welfare and usefulness of the 
Church. The first was to change the Sunday- 
school hour from afternoon to morning. It had 
been an afternoon school for many years, perhaps 
nearly fifty, and it was not a very easy thing to 
change it; but I assured the brethren that if they 
would keep the morning hour for a year in their 
Sunday-school the change would vindicate its wis- 
dom, and it would remain permanently the chosen 
hour. And so it has done. The other innovation 



368 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 



was even greater, and more difficult to effect ; but it 
succeeded. That was for the Church to bear the 
expense of the Sunday-school, and train the schol- 
ars in Christian giving. I argued that to induce 
the children to bring their offerings simply to pay 
their expenses, the training would inculcate only 
business justice and self-dependence; but it would 
not cultivate the grace of giving; and then, more- 
over, I urged upon the Official Board that the Sun- 
day-school was an arm of the Church's working, 
and its expense should be borne by the Church as 
really as the salary of the janitor, the organist, or 
the choir. This change, too, has vindicated its 
wisdom by the experience of many years. The 
missionary collections in this Church the year be- 
fore I was pastor were: From the Church, $131.88; 
from the Sunday-school, $486.68. The last year of 
my pastorate missionary collections were: From 
the Church, $298.68, an advance of 127.5 percent; 
from the Sunday-school, $546, an increase of 12^ 
per cent; whole amount, $844, an increase of 37 
per cent. 

The first year of my pastorate in Grace Church 
Bishop Foster spent a Sabbath with me, preaching 
morning and evening. His preaching produced 
a profound impression. He found that, wherever 
he and I went on the streets, all the children 
greeted me personally. He said it was a beautiful 
sight to see this respect and love for a pastor 
among the children. During my second year 
Bishop Andrews spent a Sunday in my charge. 



REV. DAVID RUTLEDGE'S ADVICE. 369 

In our boyhood he and I were Sunday-school 
mates, and we grew up together in the same vil- 
lage, New York Mills, Oneida County. His 
preaching was very edifying and helpful to the 
Church. He has proved a wise and faithful bishop. 
I was in the habit of preaching five-minute ser- 
mons to the children of my charge, before preach- 
ing the sermon to adults. The children quite 
generally attended the preaching service in the 
forenoon. The short children's sermons proved a 
genuine attraction and blessing to the children. 

During my second year's pastorate I had a visit 
of nearly a week from a former Oregon associate, 
Rev. David Rutledge, who was ten years in Ore- 
gon, fining some of the best appointments we had. 
He was a very popular and useful pastor. I esteem 
him as a very faithful friend. He advised me that 
I could be much more useful, and really rrfore safe 
in my reputation, and he believed more happy, if I 
were to re-marry. I had not then given the sub- 
ject a serious thought, and I so informed him. I 
did not know of a person towards whom I had felt 
drawn as a suitable person for a wife for me. He 
advised me to visit Bishop Janes, and consult with 
him on the subject. I took his advice. The bishop 
recommended me to visit Miss Caroline McDonald, 
a lady whom he had known from her birth. She 
was a maiden lady of some thirty-five years, of good 
mind and manners, and of high Christian character, 
who was an efficient Church worker, a lady of ex- 
cellent judgment, and at the same time of such 
24 



370 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



domestic qualities, that he judged I could not fail 
to appreciate and love her. He said she was in the 
city, he thought, and that if I saw her and wished 
a correspondence, I might refer her to him as to 
my character and standing in the Conferences. I 
learned that Miss McDonald was in Baltimore visit- 
ing a friend. I procured the address, and went to 
Baltimore. I saw her for an hour or two, and pro- 
posed a correspondence. In July following, I at- 
tended Round Lake Camp-meeting in New York, 
and preached. Here, again, I met Miss McDonald. 
We entered into a marriage engagement. October 
12, 1875, we were married by Bishop Janes, in 
Sand Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Brook- 
lyn. Our marriage has been a happy one. God's 
blessing has been upon it. I have no doubt my 
ministry has been very largely more successful be- 
cause of this union than it would otherwise have 
been. She has been a faithful and earnest helper 
in all Church work. Her exercises have been 
helpful to very many persons, young and old. The 
marriage has doubtless added years of useful labor 
to my life, and gladdened my path by its fellowship 
and by the children she has borne me. A son died 
in infancy. My daughter still survives, and gives 
promise of being a useful woman if her life shall 
be prolonged. 

The great iron wheel of the itinerancy rolled 
me into Hillsboro, Ohio. The first Sabbath of my 
pastorate here I raised a collection of $1,500, to 
assist in repairing and furnishing the Hillsboro Fe- 



AT HILLSBORO STATION. 



male College, which for many years had been doing 
most efficient service in educating young women in 
classical and literary lines. Hillsboro Charge was 
an old and large station, one of the oldest in the 
Conference. In 1840, Rev. Randolph S. Foster 
was upon the Hillsboro Circuit, before the station 
was organized as a separate appointment. In 1841 
he was the first stationed Methodist minister in 
Hillsboro, bringing to the charge his young bride. 
The small hired house in which he lived while here 
is still shown. His subsequent illustrious course, 
as a popular city preacher in New York, and later 
as president of the Northwestern University in Chi- 
cago, and afterwards a most efficient professor in 
Drew Theological Seminary, from which, in 1872, 
he was elected a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, is too well known to need more than a 
mere mention. I learned some interesting personal 
incidents in his pastorate in Wesley Chapel in Cin- 
cinnati, which have probably never been published 
until I published them, and which will be found in 
another part of this book in the Centennial Sermon 
I preached in 1888. Hillsboro Station has had 
some of the strong men of Western Methodism as 
pastors. The charge has always ranked as a large 
and strong society. 

I was removed at the end of the first quarter 
of my second year's work in Hillsboro, and placed 
upon the Dayton District, to fill a vacancy that 
had occurred there, and James Kendall, an elo- 
quent and able minister, was my successor. I shall 



372 SIXTY- ONE VEAJ?S OF ITINERANT WORK. 

always hold delightful memories of this charge. I 
was removed in the midst of the year by Bishop 
Wiley, and appointed to Dayton District, January, 
1879. The district contained twenty-six appoint- 
ments: Dayton, with three charges, Grace, Raper, 
and West Dayton ; Piqua, with two charges ; Troy, 
Tippecanoe, Middletown, Miamisburg, and Frank- 
lin, were considerable villages or cities. The other 
charges were, Addison, North Hampton, Concord, 
Lewisburg, Gordon, West Elkton, Lockington, 
Casstown, St. Paris and Lena, Brandt, Red Lion, 
Fairfield, New CarHsle, and Monroe. William 
Herr was secretary of the Preachers' Relief Society. 
The preachers on the district wrought in precious 
unity and fellowship with one another and with the 
presiding elder. I was reappointed to the district 
by Bishop Simpson, in September, 1879; by Bishop 
Peck, in 1880; by Bishop Wiley, in 1881. They 
were years of hard but happy toil. The record 
made has gone up on high, and it rests with God. 
Of those who were effective ministers when I took 
the district, as well as I can ascertain three have 
died, two have located, thirteen have superannu- 
ated, eight have remained in the effective ranks. 
Of the twenty-six who were effective when I left 
the district, two have died, fourteen are eft'ective, 
two have located, and eight have superannuated. 
So the laborers come and go. 

My residence during the term of the Dayton 
District was in Dayton. I was called on to make 
an address on occasion of unveiling a portrait of 
Daniel J. Rouzer, who was the president of the 



COMMEMORATIVE ADDRESS. 



373 



Good Samaritan Society, and a very benevolent, 
humane man. The following is the address de- 
livered on that occasion: 

ADDRKSS. 

We are met to unveil a portrait. Something which 
has been obscured is to be disclosed. The obscurity 
will soon be removed. Death has veiled from human 
sight the loved form of our friend, Daniel J. Rouzer. 
The sun had painted him while he was yet among us. 
The artist has reproduced, on canvas^ his visible form 
and features. You will soon look upon them. You 
will judge for yourselves how correctly the original 
has been reproduced. While your eyes behold the 
lines and lights and shadows that make up this beau- 
tiful portrait, another unveiling of him will take place 
in your minds. Memory will recall those acts of his 
life, and those traits of his character, which made him 
loved and lovable. This is being done by those whose 
acquaintance with him was comparatively slight, but 
who saw in the glance of his eye, who felt m the 
pressure of his hand, who beheld in the out-acted 
kindness of his inner heart, something which they 
admired. Those who held near relation to him are 
recalling his generous, unselfish kindness, manifested 
so variously and so often, and also his manliness of 
nature. His fellow-compositors are recalling his kind- 
ness and trueness in the intimacy of daily office life. 
One who was connected with him in business re- 
lations, says of him : 

In the death of Brother Roiizer the temperance people 
of this section have lost one whose place can not soon be 
filled, if ever, and the cause at large an earnest and zealons 
worker. A reformed man himself, he conld feel and appre- 
ciate the difficulties under which men labored in trying to 
redeem their fallen manhood, and his eloquent and burning 



374 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT ]VORK. 



words for God and temperance will long be remembered by 
the thousands who heard him, and hundreds who, by his ex- 
ertions, were led into the right way wull ever cherish his 
memory. 

From long and intimate intercourse with Brother Rouzer, 
as partner and friend, we learned to love him, and knew more 
of his inner nature, and his terrible struggle against appe- 
tite, than any others outside of his family. While battling 
against himself, he was ever ready to help others; his hand 
was ever open to assist the needy, and his heart ever beat in 
sympathy for the fallen. 

Farewell, brother, partner, friend! Your memory will 
ever be green in the heart of him who has stood by your side 
in the great battle of right against wrong, and who will still 
continue to fight on until victory crowns our banners, or 
he is called hence by the Master. 

This is not the time nor the place for a eulogy. 
Many good things can be said of our friend. Of his 
faults — and who has none? — it is not my duty nor 
my pleasure to speak. Nothing so sanctifies a name 
as to write one dead. The society of Good Samaritans, 
of which the departed was a member, a founder, and 
its president, the National Christian Temperance 
Union, to which he belonged, and also those who bore 
a still nearer relation, are unveiling the man as he 
was, to their conception. They are re-looking on 
w^hat has passed from human sight, but on what still 
lives in human memory, in loving hearts — an unselfish, 
earnest life; a life full of struggles and conflicts — 
sometimes winning, sometimes losing, but always 
honest, always genuine. They are recalling what we 
admired while he lived, and what is remembered, with 
loving reverence, now that he has gone away. 

Men are measured and estimated for what they 
are, and not for what they seem; for what they do, 
and not for what they profess. Men rise or fall in 
the estimation of others, not as they are brilliant and 
talented, or rich, or mighty, or exalted in station, or 



COMMEMORATIVE ADDRESS. 



Z1S 



learned, but as they are g-ood and unselfish. This 
position has the suffrage of the representative men 
of all classes and of all times and countries. George 
I^erbert says, **A handful of good life is better than 
a bushel of learning." Walter Scott says, "It is not 
great learning which awakens men's respect, but the 
nobler, truer qualities of goodness and truth." Shakes- 
peare says : 

"How far that little candle throws its beams! 
So shines a good deed in a naughty world." 

And so, also, shines the faithful, earnest doer of the 
good deeds. The largest funeral I ever saw, of a 
private individual, was that of Mr. Marshall, in this 
city, some two or three years ago. You remember 
the crowds that gathered in all the streets, and that 
followed in long, sad procession to your beautiful 
Woodland Cemetery. It was the spontaneous tribute 
of a whole people to unostentatious, genuine good- 
ness — goodness in the common walks of life. 

These elements of truth and honor and nobility 
may exist and shine in those of lowly lot, as well 
as in those of higher station. Pope has very well 
said, — 

"Honor and shame from no condition rise; 
Act well your part, there all the honor lies. 
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow; 
The rest is all but leather or prunello." 

This was the thought of Burns, in the well-known 
lines — 

"The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 
The man 's the goud for a' that." 

The Scotch bard came honestly by this truth, for 
his father had inculcated the same in the forming 



376 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



period of Robert's life. Burns thus speaks of the les- 
sons taught by his honored parent : 

"He bade me act a manly part, 

Though I had ne'er a farthing; 
For without an honest, manly heart, 
No man was worth regarding." 

The merit is not in place nor surroundings^ but in 
the man himself. The elegance and beauty of a circle 
lie not so much in its size as in its perfect round- 
ness. At the summit of their influence in their re- 
spective lines, Luther and Knox and Wesley and 
Cowper and Burns were comparatively poor. They 
owed nothing of their greatness to the distinctions 
of wealth and place. It is not the clothes men wear, 
nor the stations they fill, which give human immor- 
tality. 

When a man does some act with which humanity 
is, for the time, in close, strong, wide sympathy ; when 
he strikes some chord which vibrates in human hearts 
extensively, that act will bring recognition and immor- 
tality. The passengers on a steamship are startled 
by the cry, ''Man overboard !" Instantly the ship is 
put about, the life-boat is lowered, a dozen men offer 
to man her; but before the boat is lowered, a man 
from the deck, who has had his eye on the strong 
man strugghng with the waves, doffs his coat, and 
plunges in after the imperiled one. The one for whose 
rescue he has risked his own life is a stranger to him. 
He helps him into the life-boat; but, before he him- 
self has entered that life-boat, a shark has seized 
him, and he perishes ; the rescuer is lost. Whose 
heart, of all those passengers, does not thrill with 
profoundest sympathy at this self-sacrifice for a life? 
A nation is in peril. Invaders or revolutionists have 
arrayed armies against the nation's life or liberty. A 



COMMEMORATIVE ADDRESS. 377 

man enlists for its deliverance. The nation honors 
him. A multitude enlist. In bivouac, and march, 
and bloody field, and deadly hospital, they sacrifice 
themselves on the altars of a lofty patriotism. Those 
who return from the wars are recognized and cher- 
ished by their grateful fellow-countrymen. Those 
who fall, sleep in honored graves. Flowers are 
strewed upon their hallowed dust. 

"How sleep the brave, who sink to rest. 
By all their country's wishes blest! 
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold. 
Returns to deck their hallowed mold. 
She there shall dress a sweeter sod 
Than fancy's feet have ever trod. 

By fairy hands their knell is rung; 
By forms unseen their dirge is sung; 
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray. 
To bless the turf that wraps their clay; 
And Freedom shall awhile repair, 
To dwell a v/eeping hermit there." 

Luther drew the world to his side because he wajs 
struggling with giant antagonists to free the world 
from the most cruel superstitions and utter bondage. 
Wesley moved the great masses toward himself and 
to a higher, better life, because he was unselfishly 
teaching the world of rivers of blessings flowing for 
them, and to be had without money and without 
price. Wilberforce and Clarkson, Garrison and Phil- 
lips and Lincoln, live in human hearts to-day, shrined 
and crowned, because they took sides with the op- 
pressed, the weak, or the unfortunate. This practical 
sympathy with some intensely-absorbing thought or 
need of humanity, something which humanity believes 
urgent and important — this being equal to some great 
crisis or to some felt emergency will always secure 
fame and following, and earthly immortality. 



378 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



Why is the memory of the martyrs so green? 
They died for the truth which to-day enriches the 
world. Their firmness and constancy, amid martyr 
fires, and flood, and sword, to maintain and preserve 
for us truth and freedom, have given them their name 
and their glory. 

"They lived unknown, 
Till persecution dragged them forth to fame, 
And chased them up to heaven; their ashes flew, 
No marble tells us whither." 

It was a like unselfish consecration to the cause of 
country, and home, and altars, which has made the pa- 
triots, reformers, and confessors of all ages the world's 
great heroes to-day. 

We should never forget that the crowning of these 
is as certain, even amid apparent defeat, as that day 
succeeds to night. 

"They never fail who die 
In a just cause: the block may soak their gore; 
Their heads may sodden in the sun; their Hmbs 
Be strung to city gates and castle walls — 
But still their spirit walks abroad. Though years 
Elapse and others share as dark a doom. 
They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts 
Which overpower all others, and conduct 
The world at last to freedom." 

The world respects and loves honest men, who 
have energy of will and steadiness of purpose to work 
their own way, though mountains and oceans lie be- 
tween them and their goal ; strong men^ mailed in 
truth, and standing up for the right, as they see 
the right, against overwhelming numbers. "Energy 
of will — self-originating force" — as one has said, "is 
the soul of every great character. Where it is, there 
is life; where it is not, there are faintness, helpless- 
ness, and despondency. The strong man and the 



COMMEMORATIVE ADDRESS. 



379 



waterfall channel their own path. The energetic 
leader, of noble spirit, not only wins a way for him- 
self ; he carries others with him." Thus it has been 
from the beginning. Washington, Napoleon, Crom- 
well, Bismarck, Wesley, and Whitefield and Moody, 
are examples in point. 

The world respects and loves men of deep, strong 
convictions — not senseless, graceless, sentimental 
fops, sprigs of a windy, fleshless, fishy aristocracy, 
with gloved fingers and soft clothing; but men of 
faith and power, with convictions that are living, 
burning realities ; men who dare to speak the truth, 
even when it is unpopular; men who recognize duty 
and honor and right, and who follow them, constant 
as the polar star. Such men are a power while they 
live, and the world will never let them be forgotten, 
even when they are dead. Such a man in a workshop 
will give tone to his fellows, and exalt them to a 
better life. Franklin is said to have reformed the man- 
ners of an entire office in London, while he wrought 
there as a printer. Such were the men whom Crom- 
well chose for his armies, and whom he styled "Iron- 
sides" and "Invincibles." John Brown, whose "soul 
goes marching on," once said to Emerson that, "for 
a settler in a new country, one good believing man 
is worth a hundred — nay, worth a thousand — men 
without character." 

"Tell me," said a French writer, "whom you ad- 
mire, and I will tell what you are as to your talents, 
tastes, and character. Do you admire mean men? 
Your own nature is mean. Do you admire rich men ? 
You are of the earth, earthy. Do you admire men of 
title? You are a toad-eater or a tuft-hunter. Do you 
admire honest, brave, and manly men? You are, 
yourself, of an honest, brave and manly spirit." 
Washington and Franklin, Roger Sherman and Have- 



380 SIXTV-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

lock and Lincoln, and others, might be cited as ex- 
amples and illustrations of the view I have given. 
They were not brilliant, showy men, but they were 
true men, honest men, solid men, men of integrity, 
who would rather be right than to win a throne. 

Lord Bacon said, "I would rather beheve all the 
faiths in the legends, the Talmud, and the Alkoran, 
than that this universal frame is without a mind." He 
said this when men were clamoring that he was heter- 
odox. Brave men, men of courage, this world ap- 
proves. 

"If thou canst plan a noble deed. 
And never flag till it succeed, 
Though in the strife thy heart should bleed, — 
Whatever obstacles control, 
Thine hour will come — go on, true soul! 
Thou 'It win the prize, thou 'It reach the goal." 

Two thousand years ago, Aristotle drew a portrait 
of the magnanimous man ; that is, the gentleman. 
It is still true to the life. 

*'He will behave with moderation imder good for- 
tune and bad. He will know how to be exalted, and 
how to be abased. He will neither be delighted with 
success, nor grieved by failure. He will neither shun 
danger nor seek it, for there are few things which 
he cares for. He is reticent and somewhat slow of 
speech ; but he speaks his mind openly and boldly 
when occasion calls for it. He is not apt to admire ; for 
nothing is great to him. He overlooks injuries. He 
is not given to talk about himself or about others ; 
for he does not care that he himself should be praised, 
nor that others should be blamed. He does not 
cry about trifles, and he craves help from none." 

Self-sacrifice and devotion for the good of others 
give men immortality. The plague was making a 



COMMEMORATIVE ADDRESS. 38 1 

desert of Marseilles. It baffled all medical skill. The 
physicians determined, in council, that a corpse must 
be dissected. One of the number solemnly promised 
that he would devote himself for the safety of others, 
and that he would dissect a corpse. He made his 
will. The next morning he redeemed his promise — 
carefully made all the surgical and anatomical exam- 
inations required, wrote down his observations, threw 
the papers into a disinfecting vase, left the room, went 
out, and died. 

The cry of "mad dog" aroused the attention of 
the blacksmith. He saw that unless he grappled the 
animal his wife and children would be bitten and die. 
He seized the dog ; was again and again bitten ; but 
he held him until the dog was dispatched, and his 
family were saved. He then chained himself to the 
anvil, and met his awful death. 

John Maynard, the pilot, remained at the wheel 
of the burning ship, guiding the vessel to the nearest 
shore, when the flames had surrounded and scorched 
him, and where at last he died ; but every passenger 
was saved. 

John Howard devoted his fortune and his life to 
the relief of suf¥ering humanity, and at last he fell 
a victim to the fever contracted in his visit to a fever- 
stricken patient. His name is illustrious. His chaplet 
grows greener as the years roll away. The thousand 
forms of beneficence which now bless humanity owe 
their origin and inspiration to his example, and to 
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, which burned in 
his heart. 

And Good Samaritan societies, and National 
Christian Temperance Unions, and Red Ribbon and 
Blue Ribbon brigades, and all other organizations for 
helping humanity, are the outflow of the grace of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. It was this which suggested 



382 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



the publication of the Life-Boat, in which our lamented 
friend and brother was so forward and so effective. 
His life, his portrait, his memory, all enforce devotion 
to the work of helping the needy, and rescuing the 
perishing, and raising up the fallen. How much of 
this needs to be done. 

"There are lonely hearts to cherish, 

While the days are going by. 
There are weary souls who perish. 

While the days are going by. 
If a smile we can renew, 
As our journey we pursue, 
O, the good that we may do, 

While the days are going by!" 

The rule of John Howard in his beneficence was 
this : "Our superfluities should give way to other 
men's convenience. Our conveniences should give 
v;ay to other men's necessities. Our necessities should 
giA'C way to other men's extremities." How much 
sunshine and gladness would come to homes and 
hearts of sorrow if only these rules were adopted! 
How much this world needs Good Samaritans ! 

Thomas Carlyle says : "The whole world calls for 
new work and nobleness. Subdue mutiny, discord, 
widespread despair, by manfulness, justice, mercy, and 
wisdom. Chaos is dark — deep as hell. Let there be 
light, and there is, instead, a green, flowery world. 
O, it is great, and there is no other greatness ! To 
make some work of God's creation a little fruitfuller, 
better, more worthy of God ; to make some human 
hearts a little wiser, manfuller, happier, more blessed, 
less accursed, — it is work for a god. Sooty hell of 
mutiny, and savagery, and despair, can. by man's en- 
ergy, be made a kind of heaven, cleansed of its soot, 
of its mutiny, of its need to mutiny; the everlasting 



APPOINTED TO URBANA, 



arch of heaven overspreading it, too, and its cunning 
mechanisms and tall chimney steeples as a birth of 
heaven ; God and all men looking on it weh pleased." 

A dismantled hull was discovered on the ocean. 
She was boarded. They found the skeletons of starved 
men on the deck. One man they found still alive. 
They took him of¥ to their ship, nursed and revived 
him. As soon as he could speak, he whispered, 
''There is another man." They returned and found 
him, and rescued him. Our brother and friend manned 
the life-boat, and went to the rescue of perishing ones. 
His mute lips on yonder canvas would say, if they 
could speak, ''There is another man!' Go for him, 
brothers ; seek him ; rescue him ; save him. 

And never forget, in your need and weakness, Him 
who is the Good Samaritan from heaven ; your brother, 
my brother ; who never passes by on the other side ; 
who supplies wine, and oil, and transportation, and 
attendance, and nursing, and healing. Put yourselves 
in his hands, and let him apply the balm of his mercy 
to your weak, tempted, weary, despairing souls. 

In 1882, Bishop Thomas Bowman appointed 
me to Grace Church, Urbana. Here were spent 
three happy, useful years. I have never had a more 
pleasant, appreciative, and well-ordered officiary 
and membership than I served in Urbana. Here, 
too, were formed friendships of enduring value. 
It is one of the best charges in the Cincinnati Con- 
ference, for its complete record in all lines of mem- 
bers, Church support, Sunday-school, and benevo- 
lent collections. Urbana is a most delightful city 
of six or seven thousand persons. The people are 



384 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

intelligent, refined, prosperous, hospitable. Ur- 
bana has a college under the care of the Sweden- 
borgians. 

From Urbana, I was sent in 1885 to Wesley 
Chapel, Cincinnati, where, also, I remained three 
years. The people desired and expected my return 
for the remaining two years of my possible stay; 
but I was removed from Wesley to Central Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, Springfield, in 1888. We 
had three years of revival work in Wesley. The 
two most notable events in the Wesley pastorate 
w^ere the thorough renovation of the church, cost- 
ing about three thousand dollars, all of which was 
paid when the church was reopened. The other 
event was the preaching of a sermon, June 17, 
1888, on occasion of the celebration of the one 
hundredth anniversary of the founding of Cincin- 
nati. As this contains much historic information 
in reference to early Methodism in Southwestern 
Ohio, and especially gives a carefully-prepared 
history of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Cin- 
cinnati, it is presented here complete: 

CENTENNIAL SERMON. 

"Remember tiie days of old, consider the years of many 
generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, 
and they will tell thee. When the Most High divided to the 
nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of 
Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the num- 
ber of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his 
people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in 
a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led 
him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his 
ej'e. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her 
yovmg, spreadetli abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them 



CENTENNIAL $ERMON, 1888. 



385 



on her wings: so the I^ord alone did lead him, and there was 
no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high 
places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the 
fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and 
oil out of the flinty rock ; butter of kine, and milk of sheep, 
with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and 
goats with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink 
the pure blood of the grape." — De;ut. xxxii, 7-14. 

At the ripe age of one hundred and twenty years, 
about to cease from being the leader of Israel, Moses 
is giving his parting words to the people of the Lord. 
This address contains memories and warnings. Moses 
teaches them, in a most affecting manner, the duty of 
remembering what God had done for them and for 
their fathers. He urges this duty by several consid- 
erations : 

1. They would learn, thus, the true way to great- 
ness, honor, and success. In ''the days of old," when 
they were obediently under God's direction and care, 
this prosperity was real and grand. 

2. To recall God's kindly and wonderful dealings 
with them in ''the years of many generations," would 
be to excite living gratitude to God. 

3. To remember the former times would assist 
them in correcting any existing irregularities, or de- 
viations from rectitude. By these back-sights the 
crooked line could be straightened, and the future 
advance in the way their fathers had walked, when 
God led them in the wilderness, would be in right 
lines. Paul teaches the philosophy of this when he 
says : "Whereunto we have already attained, let us 
walk by the same rule, let us mind the same things." 

From this text, then, we gather several lessons, 
viz. : God's people are his portion and the lot of his 
inheritance ; and God takes care of them. God sets 
bounds to his people's times and habitations. He 
25 



386 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

gives them the lot of their inheritance — when men 
recognize that they dwell safely and in content. The 
review in the case of Israel presents such an advance 
that the former times and these are in contrast. He 
found them in bondage ; he brought them into lib- 
erty. He led them through the wilderness; but he 
brought them and planted them in a land of corn and 
wine. God led them ; compassed them about ; treated 
them as an eagle treats her young in teaching them 
to fly. God made them ride upon the high places of 
power, that they might share the increase and fat- 
ness of the land. As they remembered all this, they 
would be kept in right lines. When surveyors are 
running straight meridian lines they sometimes, with 
great profit, take a back-sight, and compare that with 
their fore-sights, so that the continuous line shall be 
undeviating. And if all this was profitable for those 
of the olden times, it will also be profitable for us to 
^'consider the years of many generations." 

History must be studied as a whole, and not in 
detached parts. All things and all people are parts 
of a great system. If there had been no settlement 
of Cincinnati a hundred years ago, there could be no 
centennial'now. If there had been no Wesley Chapel, 
the civilization of Cincinnati would have been differ- 
ent from what it is. Go into all the departments of a 
cotton factory, and they all bear relation to one result — 
the making of cloth. If Oliver M. Spencer had not 
been rescued from the Indians, his life would have 
had nothing to do with the progress of civilization in 
our city. 

A hundred and fifty years ago John Wesley went 
up and down through England preaching of Jesus 
and salvation. The civilization of this world of ours 
feels the pulse and throb of John Wesley's life, and it 
will continue to feel them to the end of time. The 



CENTENNIAL SERMON, 1 888. 387 

influence of Christianib^ on civilization is shown in 
several ways : Christianity forbids habits of conduct 
fatal to a high civilization, such as idleness, ■ profli- 
gacy, dissipation, loose social relations. Christianity 
inculcates and induces industry, energy, and the pro- 
duction and accumulation of property. Christianity 
prevents strikes, and promotes harmonious relations 
between labor and capital. While the showing of 
Cincinnati Methodism is not what we could have 
wished ; wdiile, as will be seen, it has not kept pace 
with the population, yet what would the civiHzation 
of Cincinnati have been to-day if there had not been, 
all through the last hundred years, the presence and 
the power of an active, earnest Christianity? 

This is Cincinnati's centennial year. Our Exposi- 
tion opens on the coming Fourth of July. In noting 
the various lines of progress made in a hundred years, 
the -Exposition Commissioners request pastors to 
preach historical sermons, and all Churches to send 
up to the Exposition halls photographs of their several 
churches and of deceased ministers, and this depart- 
ment is expected to contain the evidences of moral 
and religious advancement. The Churches and their 
history will be, there. We can note their advancement 
''that we may tell it to the generations following." As 
we point to these monuments, we may well take up the 
refrain, "This God is our God forever and ever. He 
will be our guide, even unto death." 

Within a hundred years the hills and forests 
around this region echoed the strokes of the wood- 
man's ax. Now, in six thousand manufacturing 
establishments, the hum of industry makes music 
every secular day of the year, and the smoke from 
thousands of chimney-stacks rises toward heaven. 

The capital brought here a hundred years ago was 
limited to the barest necessaries of life. The taxable 



388 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

personal property of Cincinnati is assessed at $130- 
000,000. The real estate is $50,000,000, yielding a 
revenue of four millions of dollars. Ninety-five thou- 
sand persons are employed in manufactories. Eighty 
milHons of dollars cash capital and fifty millions of 
dollars in real estate are invested and employed in 
manufacturing plants, yielding an annual product of 
two hundred millions of dollars. The property of the 
State of Ohio amounts to $3,198,062,000. 

Then we had no churches and schools. Now, 
churches are in all parts of the city, and every child 
here can attend schools of various grades, from ele- 
mentary to collegiate, while two large libraries, and 
a full law library, af¥ord the means of acquiring 
knowledge. To gather and tabulate these astounding 
facts of material progress is comparatively easy. Dol- 
lars, and stocks, and farms, and houses, and bank cir- 
culation can be counted without serious difficulty. 

But moral results can not be measured nor tabu- 
lated. They are intangible. A man receives a moral 
impulse which sends him up and on in the path of 
progress. A thousand, ten thousand, multiplied by 
tens or scores, receive like impulses, and they in turn 
communicate them to others. Moral influences curb 
and restrain evil passions and criminal purposes, pre- 
vent vagrancy, and promote industry and thrift. You 
can see some of the ef¥ects of them ; some of the 
achievements started or impelled by these moral in- 
fluences ; but you can not measure nor weigh the 
forces themselves. Let us to-day look over this field 
of moral action, and see what we can gather of inspir- 
ing truth, of encouraging precedent, and of stimulating 
motive ; and let us pray that God may assist our in- 
quiries and bless our discoveries. 

Other denominations will trace the lines of their 
history and achievements. It will be ours to follow 



CENTENNIAL SERMON, 1888. 



389 



tip the history of our advent and progress, as Meth- 
odists, in this part of the Ohio Valley. 

Ninety-five years ago the first Methodist sermon 
was preached in old Fort Washington, by a local 
preacher named Francis Clark, from Kentucky. A 
Methodist sermon was preached near Cincinnati, on 
the road to Hamilton, two years later, by James 
Smith. His theme was the angel's announcement to 
the shepherds of Bethlehem. His text was, "Behold, 
I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be 
to all people." 

Eighty-four years ago, John Collins, a local 
preacher living in Clermont County, came to Cincin- 
nati to buy salt. He made his purchases of Thomas 
Carter, on Main Street, near the river. He then in- 
quired if there were any Methodists in the town. 
"Yes," said Mr. Carter, "and I am one." Overjoyed 
by this news, Mr. Collins embraced Mr. Carter, and 
wxpt upon his neck. Mr. Collins proposed to preach 
if a place could be found. Mr. Carter offered a room 
in his own house. That night Mr. Collins preached 
with marked interest to twelve persons. In that 
house, that evening, were gathered all the Methodists 
Cincinnati then contained.''' That was the second 
Methodist sermon in Cincinnati. Yet Methodist 
preaching had been heard and Methodist societies 
had been formed at Milford and at Pleasant Hill. 

In 1804, John Sale was appointed, by Bishop As- 
bury, to the Miami Circuit, which then included nearly 
or quite all the territory now within the bounds of the 

*A writer in the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, July 
2Tst, claims that Philip Gatch preached the first sermon in 
Cincinnati in 1798. This is obviously a mistake. Judge 
McLean, wl o had access to the papers of Mr. Gatch, and who 
wrote his biography, and also that of Mr. Collins, ascribes the 
honor to Mr. Collins and not to Mr. Gatch. 



390 SIXTV-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



Cincinnati Conference. Miami Circuit had been in 
the Hst of Methodist charges since 1800, with a vary- 
ing membership of from one hundred and fifty to five 
hundred members. 

Mr. Sale visited Cincinnati. He found a Meth- 
odist class of eight persons not yet regularly enrolled. 
He preached in a hotel kept by George Gordon, on 
Main Street, between Front and Second Streets. After 
preaching, he formed the members present in the first 
properly-constituted Methodist class in Cincinnati. 
James Gibson was appointed leader. The other mem- 
bers were : Mrs. Gibson, Mr. and Mrs. St. Clair, and 
Thomas Carter, his wife, a son, and a daughter. That 
son became a judge of one of the Cincinnati courts. 
The daug"hter became the mother of Ex-Governor 
Dennison. 

A Methodist Discipline of 1812 was found recently 
in Dayton, with this inscription, in substance : 

To John Sai^k. — This Discipline got into my hands in 
some way. It belongs to John Sale. 

(Signed,) Francis Asbury. 

From the time of Mr. Sale's first sermon in Cin- 
cinnati, in 1804, it was made one of the regular 
preaching places on the Miami Circuit, being visited 
by one of the circuit preachers every two weeks. 
There was no fixed place of meeting. Sometimes it 
was held in a log school-house under the hill, some- 
times at Brother Newcome's, on Sycamore Street, 
sometimes at Thomas Carter's, and sometimes in a 
barn, near the foot of Main Street. The number of the 
Methodists steadily increased. In 1806, or in 1807, 
probably in the former year, the first Methodist church 
was built in Cincinnati, a stone edifice, on the pres- 
ent site of Wesley Chapel, Fifth Street, between Syca- 
more and Broadway, on the north side. It was a 



CENTENNIAL SERMON, 1888. 



small, square, one-story building. Soon, needing en- 
largement, this was afforded by building unsightly 
brick additions on the east and west sides. 

The lot for the church and burying-ground was 
deeded by James Kirby to five trustees, "for the use of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States 
of America." The lot was originally two hundred 
feet square, extending from the alleys, cutting the 
block centrally north and south and east and west to 
Broadway and Fifth Streets, and from Fifth to Sixth 
Streets, being the entire southeast corner of the block. 

In 1805 there were 734 members in the Miami 
Circuit. Of these there may have been twenty-five or 
thirty in Cincinnati. 

In 1806 the enrollment was 893, of whom there 
were perhaps thirty or forty in Cincinnati. 

In 1807 the Minutes show Miami Circuit 757 mem- 
bers ; Mad River Circuit, 332 members — 1,089 
bers in all. Of the members on the Miami Circuit, 
there may have been fifty or sixty in Cincinnati. 
There was no separate enrollment nor designation of 
members in Cincinnati until 1814, when 226 mem- 
bers are reported. 

In 1809 the name Cincinnati first appears in the 
Minutes. It obviously included a large part of Miami 
Circuit. Twelve hundred and eighty-two members 
are reported for that year, of whom perhaps one hun- 
dred and twenty-five were in Cincinnati. In 1807, 
Benjamin Lakin and John Collins were appointed on 
Miami Circuit. Probably the stone church had al- 
ready been erected. It was small, square, and un- 
sightly. Three services were held on the Sabbath — 
morning, afternoon, and evening. There were also a 
Sunday-school and class-meeting held each Lord's- 
day. Class-meetings have always been a special fea- 
ture of Wesley Chapel. Mr. J. P. Kilbreth, of a later 



392 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

day; attended a sunrise class-meeting, in a small, frame 
building, used also for an office, and which stood on 
the spacious church lot. There he met Judge 
McLean, who regularly attended, and who may have 
been the leader. 

Wesley and its predecessor have always been con- 
spicuous places in Cincinnati. About the time of the 
War of 1812, General Hull and his staff passed 
through Cincinnati, and attended divine worship in 
Wesley. 

When Wesley was built it was often opened for 
general purposes, because of its size. It was for many 
years the largest audience-room in the city. Fourth 
of July and Masonic celebrations were held in Wes- 
ley ; the same was true as to school anniversaries ; and 
notably those of the Cincinnati Wesleyan College. 
In 1843, when Mt. Adams Observatory was pubhcly 
opened by John Ouincy Adams, his address was de- 
livered in Wesley. 

Nearly all the Cincinnati Methodist Churches 
sprang from Wesley. One of the first colonies from 
this goodly mother of Cincinnati Methodism was the 
Old Brick Church, Plum and Fourth, commonly, for 
years, called Brimstone Corner. After some years, 
the members of the Old Brick bought land on the 
west side of Western Row, now Central A^venue, and 
built Morris Chapel. Twenty years ago they moved 
to the corner of Smith and Seventh, and erected the 
elegant and commodious structure known as St. Paul 
Church. Later ofif shoots from Wesley were McKen- 
dree, Asbury, and Trjnity. For a long time Asbury 
and McKendree buildings were rented for day-schools, 
Asbury for four dollars a month, and McKendree for 
thirty-two dollars a year. Around the old Stone 
Church the native trees were still standing, the wor- 
shipers being accustomed to tie their horses to them 



CENTENNIAL SERMON, 1888. 



393 



during divine service. But these soon disappeared^ to 
make way for the buildings and streets. 

December 25, 1829, the Official Board of Wesley 
decided to build a new church edifice. Josiah Law- 
rence submitted a plan of a church drafted by Caleb 
Williams. That board consisted of Matthew Benson, 
Robert Richardson, Christopher Smith, Isaac Covalt, 
Josiah Lawrence, Benjamin Stewart, William Bate- 
man, Oliver M. Spencer. Mr. Spencer was father of 
the late Henry E. Spencer, ex-mayor of Cincinnati. 
The church was to be built of brick, ninety-five feet 
long by seventy feet wide, two stories high above 
ground, and a basement story ; a vestibule in the main 
story ; a gallery on the sides, supported by pillars, but 
no pillars in the gallery. The cupola was to have a 
foundation carried to the roof. The house was to be 
in rear of the stone church. O. M. Spencer, Isaac 
Covalt, and Matthew Benson were the building com- 
mittee. F. Hand was to superintend the carpenter- 
work at one dollar twelve and a half cents per day. 
I. Covalt superintended the brick-work. The plaster- 
ing was done by Ezekiel Thorp. During the erection 
of the building, religious services were held in the 
court-house and in diflferent churches of the city. 

Among the honored names of the early members 
of Wesley, besides those I have given, were those of 
William Burke, a superannuated preacher, and, for 
several years, city postmaster; Adonijah Peacock, 
John and William McLean, John Elstner, James and 
John Walls, Arnold Truesdell, William Wood, and 
others. 

After the church was built, the Official Board de- 
cided that the women should occupy the seats to the 
right of the aisles leading from the front down to the 
pulpit, and the men the seats to the left of the 
aisles. It was also provided that, if the men and 



394 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ' ITINERANT WORK, 

women were found sitting together, the sexton or 
the trustees should separate them. 

May 31, 1833, the trustees passed an order forbid- 
ding persons from leaving the house in time of pub- 
lic worship, crowding into the pews past those who 
were sitting in them, and slamming the doors in going 
out of the house. The order declared that such con- 
duct showed disrespect for the worshipers, and for the 
worship of God, and was a mark of ill-breeding. 
They also passed a resolution recommending that re- 
spect was due, and should be paid, to aged persons, 
and providing that the front row of seats should be 
reserved for those of advanced years. 

The lecture-room was erected in 1859, P^^^ from 
the proceeds of a bequest of one thousand dollars left 
for that purpose by some deceased member of the 
church. 

The building of Wesley Chapel was begun Decem- 
ber 25, 1829. It was dedicated December 25, 183 1. 
It is a very plain, substantial building, resembling, in 
its main features, City Road Chapel, built by Mr. 
Wesley in London. In its day it was one of the best 
churches in the country. It cost about twenty thou- 
sand dollars. It has been the birthplace of many hun- 
dreds, perhaps thousands, of souls. Grand sermons 
have been preached here by some of the noblest and 
most renowned of ministers. Displays of Divine 
power were witnessed here at times which were won- 
derful. A lady is now living who saw, in Wesley, 
scores lying prostrate and unconscious, overpowered 
by religious influence. 

For years Wesley was one of the finest and cost- 
liest churches in Cincinnati. On that memorable 
Christmas day, in 1831, three renowned and eloquent 
ministers preached the three sermons. Bishop Soule, 
then living in Lebanon, Ohio, was to have preached 



CENTENNIAL SERMON, 1888. 



395 



the first sermon and dedicated the church. He failed 
tc appear, E. W. Sehon, one of the pastors, preached 
the morning sermon. In the afternoon, Burr H. 
McCown, a professor in Augusta College, preached. 
At night, H. B. Bascom, also a professor in Augusta 
College, officiated. 

In the summer of 1858, under the pastorate of 
Asbury Lowrey, Wesley Chapel was thoroughly re- 
fitted and improved at a cost of three thousand dol- 
lars, and on the i8th day of July, 1858, the reopening 
sermon was preached by Rev. E. W. Sehon who, 
twenty-seven years before, had preached the dedica- 
tory sermon. At a like expense the Sunday-school 
room was erected. In December, 1858, the lecture- 
room, in the rear of the main building, was dedicated 
by Bishop Morris. In these reopening services many 
were present who witnessed the first dedication in 
183 1. One was present, when the church was re- 
opened in 1887, who attended the reopening in 1858, 
and also in 1876. Under the pastorate of Sylvester 
Weeks, in 1876 or 1877, the church was put in repair, 
and was reopened with appropriate services. A some- 
what fuller account of the repairs and improvements 
put upon Wesley, in the spring of 1887, deserves 
notice. 

The improvements, which began the previous year 
by the granite pavement fronting the church and par- 
sonage, at a cost of about seven hundred dollars, con- 
sisted of replacing the windows with beautiful cathe- 
dral glass in elegant designs, those on the west side 
being protected by wire screens on the outside. The 
walls were refrescoed in terra-cotta tint and with suit- 
able inscriptions about the pulpit walls, including the 
Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer. The pulpit 
was projected from the rear wall, sufficiently to admit 
of a choir and organ platform behind the pulpit. 



396 SIXTV-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT JJ'ORK. 



Triple gas-burners replaced the old, dim, and dingy 
double ones. The wood-work was repainted and var- 
nished. The vestibule was covered with hemp mat- 
ting. The audience-room was recarpeted with well- 
adapted carpets. The whole involved a cost of about 
three thousand dollars. The improvements were con- 
ceived and carried forward by the Wesley Chapel 
Beneficent Society, whose members, male and female, 
displa}'ed great energy and liberality in promoting 
the enterprise. It would be unjust not to make special 
and honorable mention of William G. Roberts, James 
G. Rutter, Charles R. Martin, Newton B. Collord, 
J. A. Jones, 1. F. Tunison, S. M. Martin, and their 
ladies, who were active and effective in advancing the 
work. 

On the first day of May, 1887, the pastor, Rev. 
Dr. Pearne, by special request of the Wesley Chapel 
Beneficent Society, preached the reopening sermon. 
The basket-collection amounted to some three hun- 
dred and fifty dollars. In the afternoon a union love- 
feast was held, conducted by the presiding elder, 
Charles W. Ketcham. Dr. Isaac W. Joyce called for 
subscriptions, and some five hundred dollars were pre- 
sented. The debt for the improvements was all pro- 
vided for, and the elegant audience-room of Wesley 
is as comfortable and inviting as that of any church 
in Cincinnati. Of the notable subscriptions toward 
this expense, from those not members of Wesley, 
should be mentioned those of Mrs. Jane Banks, $100; 
Mrs. Bishop Clark, $50 ; a brother in Indiana, $50 ; 
R. M. Moore, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, $50; and 
Payne and Mrs. Pettibone, of Wyoming, Pa., $100. 

Since Wesley was erected, how marvelous has been 
the growth of this goodly city ! The population of 
Cincinnati in 1831, when Wesley was built, was per- 
haps twenty-five thousand. There were five Meth- 



CENTENNIAL SERMON, 1888. 



397 



odist churches, as many Methodist ministers, and one 
thousand two hundred and forty-two members of the 
Church. 

When Wesley was dedicated, there was not a single 
Methodist in Chicago, nor anything else, except a 
small hamlet hovering about the United States mili- 
tary post existing there. The next year Jesse Walker, 
who went there and wrought as a missionary, returned 
ten members. Now Chicago has far outstripped Cin- 
cinnati in population, and commerce, and churches. 

In 1858, when Wesley was reopened, the popula- 
tion of Cincinnati was given at one hundred and sixty- 
seven thousand. There were twenty churches, as 
many ministers, and nearly four thousand members. 
Now, after twenty-seven years, Wesley was again re- 
opened. Including the suburbs on both sides of the 
river, which are really a part of Cincinnati, the popu- 
lation has probably doubled itself in those years. It 
is a city of solid wealth and substantial dwellings, 
warehouses, and manufactories. There are twice as 
many Methodists ministers and churches now as then, 
and some eight or nine thousand members. 

From 1801 to 1809 eleven different preachers were 
stationed on the Miami Circuit, which included Ham- 
ilton and Clermont Counties, and seven or eight coun- 
ties north of them. From 1810 to 1834 thirty-five 
ministers in all were stationed in Cincinnati. From 
1834 to 1840, when Wesley, McKendree, and Morris 
Chapel (Fourth and Plum) were the only Methodist 
Churches in the city (Wesley and McKendree were 
either called Wesley or East Charge), eleven pastors 
were stationed in Cincinnati. Since 1840 Wesley has 
been a distinct charge, and twenty-six pastors have 
succeeded each other, one of them, J. T. Mitchell, 
serving two terms. Of these pastors, thirteen have 
ascended. Those remaining are Bishop Foster, M. P. 



398 SIXTV-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



Gaddis and J. L. Grover, Drs. Trimble, Miley, Low- 
rey, Dustin, Weeks, Pearne, William 1. Fee, A. N. 
Spahr, G. W. Kelly, and T. J. Harris. 

Of members of the Methodist Church in Cincin- 
nati, including probationers, in the early years of the 
century, the list is as follows, viz. : 

1814, 226 1819, 633 

1815, 264 1820, 608 

1816, ........ 310 1823, 633 

1817, 318 1825, . 785 

1818, 462 

In Wesley and its predecessor thirty-one different 
ministers have been stationed, one year each. Seven- 
teen have been stationed in Wesley and the old stone, 
each two years. Four have preached four years each 
in the old stone and in Wesley. These are John Col- 
lins, E. W. Sehon, J. M. Trimble, and John T. Mitchell. 
Fourteen have preached in Wesley or the old stone 
three years each. The last eight pastors in Wesley 
have been three years each. 

Wesley has been a station since 1841. The first 
four years of that term the station included Asbury 
and McKendree. The last forty-three years it has 
been a separate charge or a station by itself. Since 
1845 twenty-one different pastors have ministered 
here. Of these, four served only one year each. John 
T. Mitchell served four years. Eight pastors staid 
two years each, and eight three years each. This is 
an honorable record, creditable alike to the pastors 
who served and the Church which shared their abun- 
dant and acceptable ministrations. 

What has Wesley been as to its membership? 

From 1841 to 1851 the average membership was 51S 



1851 " 1861 " 

1861 1871 " 

1871 " 1881 

1881 " 1888 " 



« 



304 
315 
325 



« 



« 



« 



« 



« 



« 



406 



CENTENNIAL SERMON, 1 888. 



399 



Until the present pastorate, the largest number of 
probationers and members reported was in 1844 — five 
hundred and thirty. 

What has Wesley effected? Of course, in answer- 
ing this question, only proximate facts can be given, 
and these can not be measured in the sweep of their 
influence. An average of forty conversions a year in 
Wesley and its predecessor would give the aggregate 
of three thousand and forty conversions. The average 
is probably much higher than is here named. Under 
seven pastorates, selected from personal knowledge or 
reliable information, there were two thousand and 
seven hundred conversions, leaving fifty-five pastor- 
ates, which would doubtless average thirty-five each, 
adding nineteen hundred and twenty-five conversions, 
making nearly five thousand and two hundred con- 
versions in this God-honored Church. An average 
of thirty deaths a year would give an aggregate of 
two thousand four hundred, who, since this Church 
was organized, have ascended to their crowning. 

What Wesley has given for missions has been tab- 
ulated in the General Minutes for only thirty-one 
years. Prior to that, whatever was given can only be 
conjectured, as no publication was made of it. 

From 1857 to 1867 Wesley gave for missions, 
$5,692 ; average per yQar of $570. The average per 
year, per member, was $1.74. 

From 1867 to 1877 Wesley gave for missions, 
$5,519; average per year of $552. The average per 
year, per member, was $1.85. 

From 1877 to 1888 Wesley gave for missions, 
$3,256; average per year of $296. The average per 
year, per member, was 90 cents. 

It will be seen that the contributions for missions 
for the past eleven years have perceptibly shrunk. 
The explanation is found in the fact that Wesley has 



400 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK'. 



been depleted of wealthy members by the Churches 
of the city and suburbs, and that, up to the last decade, 
the missionary collection was the principal and almost 
the only one. Since then the Church Extension, 
P'reedmen's Aid, and other Conference collections, if 
added to that for missions, would probably swell the 
aggregate annual contributions of Wesley up to the 
figures from 1857 to 1867. 

In 1844, under the pastorate of J. M. Trimble, the 
parsonage was built. Dr. Trimble himself dug the 
vault for the cistern, which still remains, a mute wit- 
ness to his industry. 

It will be interesting to consider, with some atten- 
tion, the names and characters of some of the grand 
old ministers who have served as pastors in Wesley 
Chapel. Among the honored names of those who 
have ministered in the old stone church is that of 
John P. Durbin. His senior colleague was the re- 
vered and immortal William H. Raper. They suc- 
ceeded the almost equall}^ eminent Russel Bigelow 
and Truman Bishop. The next year, 1826, Mr. Dur- 
bin was a professor in Augusta College. His first 
charge, to which he went from the cabinetmaker's 
bench, was Greenville Circuit, which covered a large 
part of Darke and Montgomery Counties, and nearly 
all of Preble. In his first year he took rank as a vig- 
orous thinker and an eloquent man. He possessed 
rare dramatic genius. Richard Brandrif¥, of Piqua, 
a member of the Cincinnati Conference, joined the 
traveling connection in 1821. He died in 1887, aged 
eighty-five years. He was a contemporary of j\Ir. 
Durbin. He knew him intimately. Mr. Brandriff has 
narrated to the writer repeated instances of ]\Ir. Dur- 
bin's early development as a man of recognized pul- 
pit power. In the Eastern States he gave a lecture 
on St Paul as man, irrespective of his greatness as an 



CENTENNIAL SERMON, 1888. 4OI 

inspired apostle, which the press of the time highly 
commended. His national fame as an orator contin- 
ued for many years. A member of Wesley Chapel is 
still living who sat under Mr. Durbin's ministry in the 
old stone church. He always had large and admiring 
audiences. The membership in the city in 1825 was 
seven hundred and fifty; colored, thirty-five. Dr. 
Durbin's career affords a fine illustration of the op- 
portunity this country afforded and affords earnest 
and gifted young men for reaching eminent positions. 
L. Iv. Hamline, afterward a bishop, was a minister in 
Wesley in 1835 and 1836. He has probably never 
been excelled in Ohio as a brilliant, clear, forcible 
thinker and an eloquent divine. Some of his passages, 
as now recalled, had surpassing sweep of thought and 
diction, and overwhelming pathos. James Ouinn, 
John Collins, and W. B. Christie were men of wide 
fame and usefulness. Of the three, Christie excelled 
in invariable pulpit effectiveness. Even when he was 
far gone in consumption, he would astonish and over- 
power his audiences by vehement and eloquent pas- 
sages. John Miley, of a period of ten years later, has 
always been a superior preacher. He still retains the 
mental fire and power of the earlier times. He is the 
live and popular professor in Drew. It was while 
Bishop Foster was pastor of Wesley that he had the 
controversy with Dr. Rice, on Calvinism. During his 
incumbency the cholera made its second appearance 
in Cincinnati. He was with the sick and the dying, 
never flinching nor shirking his duty to the stricken 
members and families of his flock. In one instance, 
a lady member of the Church, living on Sycamore 
Street, called at the parsonage to solicit Mr. Foster 
to visit her husband, who was very ill with the 
cholera. He went, found the man in collapse, min- 
istered to him, and remained with him until he died, 
26 



402 SIXTY-OXE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



smoothed his pillow, and laid him out decently upon 
the bed. Returning, he found the man's wife dying 
of cholera. The man, before dying, called for his bank 
book, found a balance of one thousand five hundred 
dollars, for which he gave Mr. Foster a check as a 
personal gift, which, however, Mr. Foster, with the 
self-sacrifice and generosity characteristic of the early 
itinerants, gave to Wesley, to assist in paying off a 
troublesome Church debt. 

During this pastorate Mr. Foster had his famous 
controversy with Dr. Rice on Calvinism. Lyman 
Beecher, then a professor in Lane Seminary, came to 
hear his sermons on Calvinism, and rendered him val- 
uable assistance by the loan of books of reference 
upon the subject under discussion. More than twenty 
years later, Bishop Foster met, in South America, a 
thrifty Scotchman, who had been rescued from infidel- 
ity, caused by his difficulties with Calvinism, by read- 
ing the bishop's book, entitled, "Objections^ to Cal- 
vinism." 

John Collins had much to do in molding and 
directing Cincinnati Methodism. As already seen, he 
visited Cincinnati in 1804, and preached to twelve 
persons. In 1807 he joined the traveling connection, 
and, with Benjamin Lakin as his senior colleague, he 
was stationed on Miami Circuit, which then included 
Cincinnati. He was then thirty-eight years of age. 
In 1 82 1 and 1822, at the age of fifty-two, he was sta- 
tioned in Wesley Chapel, Cincinnati. Again, in 1834, 
he was pastor of this Church. There is a lady — ]Mrs. 
Kierman — still a member of Wesley, which she joined 
under ]\Ir. Collins's pastorate. He was evidently, and 
with good reason, a great favorite with the people of 
Wesley. 

John Collins was presiding elder here from 1826 to 
1829. He was small of stature, compactly built, with 



CENTENNIAL SERMON, 1 888. 



an expressive, mild blue eye, and possessing large sen- 
sibility. He seldom preached without weeping, in 
which his audiences almost always participated. He 
was the honored instrument in the conversion of Jus- 
tice John McLean, of the United States Supreme 
Court. Mr. Collins's death was as peaceful and tri- 
umphant as his long life had been useful and beauti- 
ful. His sun-setting was without a cloud. His last 
words were, **Happy ! Happy ! ! Happy ! ! !" and all 
was still. His history is identified with that of the 
West. His usefulness as a preacher is unsurpassed 
in Southwestern Ohio. As a successful pastor he had 
no superior.* 

At the age of twenty, WiUiam H. Raper was a 
captain in the War of 1812, in which he distinguished 
himself as a brave and successful soldier. In 1816 
he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1819 
he became a member of the Ohio Conference. In 
1825-1826 he was stationed in Cincinnati, which then 
included Wesley and all the city. In 1837 and 1838 

* Maxwell P. Gaddis, in his "Footprints of an Itinerant," 
credits John Collins with having preached the first Methodist 
sermon in Ripley, Ohio. He was passing through Ripley, 
on his way to an appointment, and passed a funeral proces- 
sion on its way to the grave with the deceased wife of an 
infidel. After the burial services at the grave were concluded, 
he requested the people to remain, and he preached to them 
a sermon from the words, "I am the resurrection and the 
life." (John xi, 25.) Many were in tears. The infidel was 
converted. Mr. Collins, in 181 1, appointed the trustees and 
made arrangements for building the first Methodist Episcopal 
church in Urbana, Ohio. In the same year, John Collins, 
then preaching on the Mad River Circuit, raised a subscrip- 
tion to build the first Methodist Episcopal church, in Day- 
ton, Ohio. In 1840, in the great revivals under J. N. Maffitt, 
in which seven hundred were converted in Wesley, and many 
hundreds in Maysvillc, Ky., Father Collins is described as 
working effectively in a blaze of glory. 



404 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

he was stationed in Wesley. In 1841 he was a presid- 
ing elder in Cincinnati. He died in 1852, at the age 
of sixty-one. He was remarkable for his refinement, 
his rare conversational powers, and his great ability 
as a preacher of the gospel. Noble, honored man! 
After thirty-two years since his death, his personal 
impress is still felt. 

William B. Christie was born in 1803. He was a 
proficient student in Augusta College, giving promise 
then of his distinguished career. In 1830 to 1832 
Mr. Christie was pastor in Wesley Chapel. In 1836 
he was associated with L. L. Hamline as pastor of 
\Vesley. In 1837-8-9 he was presiding elder in Cin- 
cinnati. In 1841-1842 he was stationed in Urbana. 
In 1842, he died in this city, at the house of his 
brother-in-law, Dr. M» B. Wright. When dying, he 
said to E. W. Sehon: "Tell the brethren of the Con- 
ference that I have not preached an unknown nor an 
unfelt Christ. The gospel I have preached to others 
sustains me now. Tell the brethren to preach Christ 
and him crucified ; tell them my only hope, my only 
foundation, is in the blood of sprinkling. O, the full- 
ness, the richness, the sweetness of that fountain ! I 
am almost home. God is good to me. Jesus Christ 
is my salvation." His funeral, from this church, was 
attended by an overflowing crowd of all classes of 
people. Persons attended who were never before nor 
since within these walls. Bishop Morris preached on 
that occasion. He says, while he had seen many happy 
Christians die, he never saw a more signal victory than 
that of William B. Christie in his death. 

Bishop Morris was several times a pastor of Wes- 
ley. In 1832 and 1833 he was pastor of Wesley, and 
from 1834 to 1836 he was presiding elder in Cincin- 
nati. 

Having spoken of some of the distinguished min- 



CENTENNIAL SERMON, 1 888. 405 

isters of Wesley, it will be proper to make reference 
also, to some of the eminent laymen who have been 
honored members of this Church. 

Josiah Lawrence, a native of Boston, was born 
April 19, 1 79 1. Early in the century he came to Cin- 
cinnati, by way of South Carolina. For very many 
years he was an active, useful member of the Official 
Board of this Church. He possessed large wealth, 
which he liberally used in sustaining the Church and 
in its benevolent causes. His life was pure ; his ex- 
ample was godly; his business integrity was prover- 
bial. He was a merchant and banker in whom every- 
body had confidence. His portrait adorns the walls 
of the Chamber of Commerce. One of the oldest 
members of Wesley said to me : "J'^siah Lawrence 
was a pillar in this Church, active, devoted, liberal, 
loved by all the Church." 

William Nef¥ was for many years an official mem- 
ber of Wesley. He was reared in the Episcopal 
Church. But he formed a strong attachment for J. B. 
Finley, under whose influence he was converted, and 
he became a zealous and devoted Methodist. From 
his birthplace, in Philadelphia, he came west by the 
way of Savannah, Georgia, where he spent the earlier 
years of his life. Like Lawrence, Neff was wealthy 
and liberal. 

Another eminent member of this Church was 
a man whose early and thrilling history I read in 
my childhood in a Sunday-school library book. 
Oliver M. Spencer, in 1790, when a young lad, was 
brought, by his parents, from New Jersey to Cin- 
cinnati. At first they settled in Columbia, where 
several years were spent. By permission, he came 
down to Fort Washington, with his parents, on foot, 
to attend a military drill and parade, which was 
to continue several days. After the first day Oliver 



406 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

tired of the parade, and, with the consent of his 
parents, he started back, on foot, and alone, for Co- 
lumbia. On his homeward way he saw a boat with 
persons in it, ascending the river. He signaled the 
boat^ hoping to obtain a ride to Columbia. Some 
concealed Indians captured him, and carried him to 
their own home, in the Wabash or Michigan region. 
He had all the experience of Indian life, sleeping at 
night on the ground, and faring in their rough, irreg- 
ular way. He was taken by them to Pennsylvania, 
Indiana, Michigan, and New York. Through the 
offices of a friendly Indian, he was reclaimed while 
yet a captive in New York. After his rescue he re- 
mained a few years in New York, attending school, 
and then returned to Cincinnati. Spencer was a lead- 
ing member of this Church, at times president and 
secretary of the trustees. He took an active and 
leading part in the erection of Wesley Chapel. 

Mrs. Bell, one of the oldest members of Wesley, 
bears testimony to the excellent character and piety 
of Christopher Smith, whom she described as the salt 
of the earth. One of his daughters, Mrs. Edward 
Sargent, died a year or two since. Another daughter 
still lives on Walnut Hills. Brother Truesdell, a 
teacher, was Sister Bell's class-leader. He was faith- 
ful and effective. His widow became the wife of 
Bishop Hamline. She died a few years since in 
Evanston. She was a noble Christian woman, of 
cultured mind and highly-refined nature. 

Judge McLean, the distinguished jurist, was a 
steady-going, earnest, consistent, and faithful Meth- 
odist. He was always found in his place, right here 
on the right-hand side of the pulpit, on the front seat 
of the amen corner, just there next to that gallery 
post. His piety was genuine; here he sat; here he 
testified, by his life and his words, for Jesus. He 



CENTENNIAL SERMON, 1 883. 



407 



was a class-leader. J. P. Kilbreth, who came to this 
city when the century was young, frequently attended 
his sunrise class in the little, one-story, one-room 
frame building, called the church ofhce, and which 
stood on the church-lot near where the parsonage now 
stands. Judge McLean wrote very beautiful sketches 
of the lives of John Collins and Philip Gatch, pioneer 
preachers of Southwestern Ohio. 

But we may not overlook the women of Cincinnati 
Methodism. In this city, fifty years ago, from woman's 
wise forethought, came the Cincinnati Wesleyan Col- 
lege, which has been graduating trained, godly women 
for all the middle West. They have filled the land with 
their blessed influence. Here, too, more recently, 
was launched the Woman's Home Missionary Society 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Cincinnati 
Branch, Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, has 
been behind none in liberal, effective doing for 
Christ. Under the ministry of some of the ablest 
men of American Methodism, came into our Cincin- 
nati Methodism some of its grandest women : Mrs. 
Judge McLean, Mrs. Josiah Lawrence, Mrs. Benjamin 
Stewart, Mrs. Christopher Smith, Mrs. Logue, Mrs. 
Ezekiel Thorp, Mrs. Arnold Truesdell, afterward Mrs. 
Bishop Hamline, Mrs. Collins, Mrs. Jemima Peacock, 
Mrs. Sarah Mills, Mrs J. P. Kilbreth, Mrs. T. W 
Bakewell, Mrs. Sacker Nelson, Mrs. William Neff, 
Mrs. Oliver M. Spencer, Mrs. Mary Coner, mother 
of our own Aunt Jane Banks. Mrs. John Elstner, one 
of God's own, the Lord's prisoner, still remains. In 
her prime she was an active manager of the Home for 
the Friendless. In her age and feebleness she does 
not lack for friends. Nearly all of these were members 
of Wesley; some belonged to the old stone church. 

In the old brick church. Plum and Fourth Street, 
next after the old stone church, there grew up, prior to 



408 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

the last half century, a class of noble Alethodist 
women, among whom may be named Airs. Dr. Jesse 
Smith, afterward wife of Rev. John F. Wright, and 
of equally blessed memory, Mrs. William McLean, 
Mrs. John Reeves, Mrs. Thomas B. Anderson, Mrs. 
Moses Brooks, Mrs. John Dubois, and her sister. Miss 
Susan Lanphear. Most of these women had homes of 
plenty and luxury, which were always open to the 
ministers of Christ. The few surviving Methodists 
of those early times recall the domestic delights of 
those well-nigh apostolic days as a pleasant dream. 

Nine years ago, at the ripe age of eighty-three, Ann 
Davis, mother of the two doctors, John and Wilham 
B. Davis, went home, after seventy-two years of Chris- 
tian life. For fifty years she had been honorably con- 
nected with Cincinnati Methodism. Fifty years ago 
she effectively aided Dr. Nast in planting German 
Methodism in this city. In this roll of honor belong 
Mrs. Samuel Lewis, Mrs. Gamble, Sr., mother of 
James Gamble, who is still with us ; also Mr. Gamble's 
sisters. Media Gamble and Mrs. Rizer. Mrs. Gamble 
had seen Wesley and heard Coke. Of those yet re- 
maining, Mrs. Bishop Clark and Mrs. Glenn, of St. 
Paul ; Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. Perkins ; Mrs. Wood, of 
Walnut Hills; and Mrs. Gamble, of Trinity, and so 
many more, loved and cherished, I could say much. 

I wish to give you some fig-ures showing the ac- 
tual and relative progress of Methodism in Cincin- 
nati. It has been slower and smaller than in the 
whole State, and as compared also with Methodism 
in other cities. Yet it has had peculiar hindrances 
here not known in other cities and sections. Con- 
sidering these, its march has not been discreditable. 

The population given for i860 is an approximate 
figure. The Methodist figures for 1880 and 1888 are 
approximate, yet they arc substantially reliable. They 



CENTENNIAL SERMON, 1888. 409 

iiiclnde the German and colored members, and also 
members in suburban charges. 

ACTUAIv AND COMPARATIVK INCRKAS:^ OF MEMBERS 
BY DECADES. 

1800-1810. — Members, say 130; increase, 130 per cent. 

Methodists to the population, one in nineteen. 
1810-1820. — Members, 608; increase, 375 per cent. 

Methodists to the population, one in sixteen. 
1820-1830. — Members, 1,142; increase, 87 per cent. 

Proportion, one in twenty-two. 
1830-1840. — Members, 2,686; increase, 138 per cent. 

Proportion, one in sixteen. 
1840-1850. — Members, 3,223 ; increase, 20 per cent. 

Proportion, one in thirty-five. 
1850-1860. — Members, 4,461 ; increase, 39 per cent. 

Proportion, one in thirty-seven. 
1860-1870. — Members, 4,932 ; increase, 10^ per cent. 

One Methodist to forty-four of the population. 
1870-1880. — Members, 7,000; increase, 42 per cent. 

One Methodist to thirty-six. 
1880-1888. — Members, say 8,000; increase, 14)4 pr. ct. 

One Methodist to forty-two of the population. 

POPULATION— ACTUAL AND RELATIVE INCREASE BY 
DECADES. 

Increase 

Decade. Numbers. Per Cent. 

1800-181O 2,510 230 

1810-1820 9,242 280 

1820- 1830 24,831 58 

1830-1840 44.338 79 

1840-1850 115,403 165* 

1850-1860 167,378 45 

1860-1870 216,139 35 

1870-1880 255,139 18 

1880-1888 say 333,000 3 



* Notwithstanding 4,832, one in twenty-four, or four per 
cent of the population, died of eholera. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

I WAS sent from Wesley Chapel, Cincinnati, to 
Central Methodist Episcopal Church, Spring- 
field, Ohio, at the Conference of 1888. I had been 
in Wesley only three-fifths of the possible length 
of the pastorate. It was the judgment of all the 
members of the Official Board of Wesley that I 
should fill out the full term, and in this view of the 
case I was in full accord with them. Yet Central 
Church was deemed to be in a peculiar condition. 
It was the opinion of Bishop Warren and all the 
presiding elders of the Conference that I should 
be sent to Central Church, Springfield. I went 
there, and while the conditions were somewhat 
unique, I was never the pastor of any Church where 
I had more fully the confidence of my officiary and 
the appreciation of my congregation. All things 
considered, they were very successful years. We 
had almost a continuous revival. This is a work- 
ing Church — a people's Church. During my two 
years' pastorate in the Central Church, I wrote and 
published a paper in reply to Colonel Robert G. 
Ingersoll's article on "God in the Constitution." 
His article appeared in the first number of the 
Arena, a Boston review. I wrote a reply, and sent 
it to the editor, who had promised me that my 
paper should appear in the next number of the 
Arena; but when I sent it the editor returned it, 
saying that a Roman Catholic bishop and a Con- 

410 




THOMAS H. PEARNE. D. D. 
(At the age of 79 Years.) 



I 



REVIEW OF INGERSOLL. 



411 



gressman had sent him repHes, which he deemed it 
better to pubHsh than to print my article. I then 
pubhshed and circulated my own reply. It was 
printed in pamphlet form in Cincinnati in 1890. 
I here insert it as still opportune: 

GOD IN THE CONSTITUTION. 

"A REVIEW." 

Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll has published, in the 
Arena for January, a paper on "God in the Constitu- 
tion." It holds the place of honor, being the first 
article. While ostensibly opposing the insertion of 
God's name in that instrument, he speaks one word 
for his avowed theme, and three or four for the old 
hobby he has been riding for the last fifteen years; 
namely, venomous, unscrupulous attacks upon God, 
the Bible, and the Christian religion. 

The Colonel's article is characteristic. It is a sin- 
gular mosaic of venom and fun, argument and decla- 
mation, hyperbole and reasonable statement, satire 
a.nd sober truth. Bald assumptions and malignant in- 
vective are indiscriminately commingled. 

The stale chestnuts of Thomas Paine, who issued 
a hundred years ago a ribald book, falsely named 
"The Age of Reason the unworthy denunciations 
of the Bible and religion by Thomas Hertell, a mem- 
ber of Congress, some fifty years since; and the 
rhetoric, wit, sarcasm, and exaggeration of the Col- 
onel himself, are freely and loosely thrown about in 
promiscuous, bewildering profusion. 

He reminds one of the acrobat in the circus ring, 
called Dandy Jack, who, after feats of ground and 
lofty tumbling, pulls ofif his red cap, and waits for the 
applause. 



412 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



The Colonel's production is a rare specimen of 
intellectual vaulting and leaping, causing the gaping 
crowd to stare and applaud, we may imagine, much 
after the manner of those of the olden time, who won- 
dered at the marvelous exploits of the village school- 
master of the poet, — 

"And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, 
How one small head could carry all he knew." 

With the dogmatism of a pope, the Colonel asserts, 
as though he beheved his absurd proposition : 

As to the existence of the Supernatural, one man knows 
precisely as much, and exactly as little, as another. Upon this 
question, chimpanzees and cardinals, apes and popes, are 
upon an exact equality. 

The Colonel puts the jabbering monkeys and the 
priests into the same category. Such assumptions dis- 
close astounding arrogance. In some of the para- 
graphs there are more assumptions than lines. They 
are used as though he considered his assertions argu- 
ments, and as though the more extreme and bald the 
assertion, the more utter the discomfiture of his op- 
ponent, and the more certain and triumphant the 
maintenance of his own propositions. Many of his as- 
sumptions have no apparent probability, yet he repeats 
them as though he beheved them axiomatic. Consider 

I. ExAMPLKS OF CoLONKiv Ingkrsoll's Bold 
Assumptions. — This is one of the opening para- 
graphs : 

In 1776 our fathers endeavored to retire the gods from 
poHtics. They declared that "all governments derive their 
just powers from the consent of the governed." This was a 
contradiction of the then political ideas of the world; it was, 
as many beheved, an act of pure blasphemy — a renunciation 
of the Deity. It was, in fact, a declaration of the independ- 



REVIEW OF INGERSOLL. 



ence of the earth. It was a notice to all Churches and priests 
that thereafter mankind would govern and protect themselves. 
Politically, it tore down every altar, and denied the authority 
of every "Sacred Book," and appealed from the providence 
of God to the providence of man. 

In ten lines here are a dozen assertions, each one 
of which is unfounded, some of which are untrue, and 
all of them misleading. 

So far as known, the fathers of 1776 did not "en- 
deavor to retire the gods from politics." Nay ! If 
the author did not "know enough to know this," he 
is more obtuse than he has generally been considered. 
Unless grossly ignorant, he knew that the signers of 
the Declaration were not idolaters — were not believers 
in gods many. They were not pagans. Three of 
them, at least, wxre ministers, and perhaps others. 
Yet he sets up a row of imaginary gods, and then em- 
ployed "our fathers" in 1776, in knocking them down 
and out by a decree, a declaration shall we say, a 
constitution? He implies a constitution. 

Their utterance as to the derivation of the powers 
of government was not intended (so far as can be 
seen) to strike out one god, not many. The signers 
believed in God, the Creator, in his providence, and 
in his justfce and omniscience as well ; for they appeal 
to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude 
of their intentions. In the first sentence of that im- 
mortal document, they speak of "Nature's God" and 
"Man's Creator." In the very last sentence they say, 
"For the support of this Declaration, with a firm re- 
liance in the protection of Divine Providence, we 
mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, 
and our sacred honor." 

In view of these facts, what are we to think of the 
candor and veracity of Colonel Ingersoll? 

When he used the statement that our fathers of 



414: SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



1776 "appealed from the providence of God to the 
providence of man/' he uttered what he must have 
known was false. 

Equally improbable, unsupported, and untrue, are 
other statements in the same paragraph. Let us see : 

This was, as many believed, an act of pure blasphemy, a 
renunciation of the Deity. 

Necessarily, this act, and the beHeving concerning 
it, were contemporaneous. The act is patent, as we 
have seen. It was neither blasphemy nor a renun- 
ciation of the Deity; because, in the Declaration, four 
times they recognized and named God. If many so 
believed, they must have had some basis for their be- 
lief outside the Declaration, and they must have felt 
some statements of their thus believing, or the Col- 
onel could not have known that they so believed. 
What are those statements, and where can they be 
found? Come forward. Sir Champion, and produce 
them, or stand impeached of attempting to palm of¥, 
upon an intelligent public, an unproved and improb- 
able assertion. 

"Optics keen it takes, I ween, 
To see what is not to be seen." 

Examine another remark : 

It was, in fact, a declaration of the independence of the 
earth. 

It was not so in fact. It was not so, even in form. 
The signers declared for themselves and their con- 
stituents, and for no others, their renunciation and 
independence of Great Britain. At the same time they 
recognized their dependence upon their Creator. It 
was a great document. It declared basal principles ; 
but it was not a declaration of the independence of 



REVIEW OF INGERSOLL. 



the whole earth. Our fathers of 1776 declared that 
"all men are endowed by their Creator with certain 
inalienable rights." This proved their faith in God 
and their reverence for his authority. 

Equally unwarranted and untrue is the statement 
that the Declaration "was a notice to all Churches and 
priests that thereafter mankind would govern and pro- 
tect themselves." There is no reference here, ex- 
pressed or implied, to Churches and priests. Nor is 
there anything in the contemporaneous history of the 
Declaration, or of the times, to support the gratuitous 
assertions. 

"Politically," says the Colonel, "it tore down every 
altar^ and denied the authority of every sacred book, 
and appealed from the providence of God to the 
providence of man." 

All and singular these averments are proved false 
by the witness the Colonel himself has introduced and 
placed upon the stand. He may not, in any form or 
to any degree, discredit his own witness. He is bound 
to abide b}^ what his own witness, fairly construed, 
says. He can not escape this conclusion by saying 
that he is talking about the Constitution and not 
about the Declaration of Independence. He desig- 
nates the latter by the date of its birth, 1776. He 
quotes from it words found in the Declaration but not 
in the Constitution. The Constitution was not framed 
until thirteen years later. By his own witness, there- 
fore, Mr. Ingersoll is convicted of dense ignorance 
or of gross fraud and falsehood. 

And is such a man, hurling malignant invectives 
against God and his religion and ministers, to go un- 
challenged ? 

Is he to be virtually accredited, by the silent ac- 
quiescence and non-protest of Christian people, in his 
ruthless, fraudulent assaults upon the religion of the 



41 6 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



great mass of the American people? Finding these 
glaring perversions and untruths in one of the first 
paragraphs of the Colonel's paper, it would be fair to 
conclude that the remainder is also untrue and mis- 
leading. We might, therefore, forego further exam- 
ination, since it is a safe general conclusion that what 
is false in one part is false, also, in all. And yet it 
may be best to pursue our inquiries further. Let us 
consider, then, that 

II. In thk Coi.onei.'s paper there are nu- 
merous exampi.es of bitter prejudice, which 
render his conclusions suspicious, unreivia- 
BLE, AND Misi<EADiNG. — The following Specimen is 
pertinent . 

And if there is to be an acknowledgment of God in the Con- 
stitution, the question naturally arises as to which God is to 
have this honor. Shall we select the God of the Catholics — he 
who has established an infallible Church presided over by an 
infallible pope, and who is delighted with certain ceremonies 
and placated by prayers uttered in exceedingly common 
Latin? Is it the God of the Presbyterian, with the Five Points 
of Calvinism, who is ingenious enough to harmonize necessity 
and responsibility, and who in som.e way justifies himself for 
damning most of his own children? Is it the God of the 
Puritan, the enemy of joy — of the Baptist, zvho is great enough 
to govern the universe, and small enough to allow the destiny 
of a soul to depend on whether the body it inhabited was 
immersed or sprinkled? 

What God is it proposed to put in the Constitution? Is it 
the God of the Old Testament, who is a believer in sl-avery, 
and zvho justified polygamy? If slavery was right then, it is 
right now; and if Jehovah was right then, the IMormons are 
righS: now. Are we to have the God who issued a command- 
ment against all art — zvho zvas the enemy of investigation and of 
free speech f Is it the God who commanded the husband to 
stone his wife to death because she differed zoith him on the 
subject of religion? Are we to have a God zvho zvill re-enact 
the Mosaic code, and punish hundreds of ofTenses with death? 
What court, what tribunal of last resort, is to define this God, 



REVIEW OF INGERSOLL. 



and who is to make known his will? In his presence, laws 
passed by men will he of no value. The decisions of courts will 
be as nothing. But who is to make known the will of this 
supreme God? Will there be a supreme tribunal composed of 
priests f 

No intelligent person holds that the God of the 
Romanist is a different being from the God of the 
Protestants, or the Calvinists, the Puritans, the Bap- 
tists, or the Jews. The Colonel distorts and arrays 
the extreme views of each to discredit them all, and 
to make, it appear absurd and impracticable that the 
Constitution should recognize God. 

The assertion that the God of the Old Testament 
was a believer in slavery and justified polygamy, is 
an unsupported and misleading one. How does the 
Colonel know what God beHeved? How can he un- 
less God has told him? And how can a myth, a mere 
matter of opinion, believe or communicate? Where 
is the proof that God believed in slavery and justified 
polygamy? Because he permitted them? Then God 
believed in sin, in murder, and idolatry, and adultery; 
for God permitted them to exist. That God believed 
in neither is shown beyond cavil, in the fact that the 
moral law cuts up slavery and polygamy by the roots. 
''Doth the same fountain send forth both bitter water 
and sweet?" 

The attempt to show that if God were recognized 
in the Constitution, some authoritative tribunal to ex- 
plain and interpret God's will would be necessary, is 
prejudiced and sophistical. 

The inquiry, ''Will there be a supreme tribunal 
composed of priests?" discloses the old bitter hate 
against ministers, which, in the Colonel, seems a rul- 
ing passion. The criminal codes of all civilized na- 
tions are based upon the moral law as revealed in the 
Bible. 
27 



41 8 SIXTY- O.YE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



The common law of England, and which, also, is 
the foundation of our judicial system, expressly recog- 
nizes Christianity as a part of the English common 
law. 

There is not a civilized nation on the face of the 
earth that does not recognize God in its laws. Black- 
stone, section 2, says: "On these two foundations, the 
law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all 
human laws ; and where there is no revelation, then the 
human law^s depend upon the laws of nature and on 
God for their source." 

All this is not only as true in our country as in 
others, but it is more so. Does our brother — w^ho 
knows these things as well as any one — find any diffi- 
culty in that fact? Are priests therefore needed to 
stand at the elbows of courts to teach them what is 
and what is not criminal? 

III. CoivONEiv Ingkrsoi.Iv betrays a suspicious 

ANIMUS AGAINST A CERTAIN CI.ASS OE HIS FEl<I.OW- 
CiTizENS. — He says: 

Of course all persons elected to office will either swear or 
affirm to support the Constitution. Men who do not believe 
in this God can not so swear or affirm. Such men will not 
be allowed to hold any ofiice of trust or honor. A God in the 
Constitution will not interfere with the oaths or affirmations of 
hypocrites. Such a provision will only exclude honest and con- 
scientious unbelievers. Intelligent people know that no one knozvs 
whether there is a God or not. The existence of such a being is 
merely a matter of opinion. Men who believe in the liberty of 
man, who are willing to die for the honor of their country, will 
be excluded from taking any part in the administration of its 
affairs. Such a provision would place the country under the feet 
of priests. 

To recognize a Deity in the organic law of our country 
would be the destruction of religious liberty. The God in 
the Constitution would have to be protected. There would 
be laws against blasphemy, laws against the publication of 
honest thoughts, laws against carrying books and papers 



REVIEW OF INGERSOLL. 



419 



in the mails in which this Constitutional God should be at- 
tacked. Our land would be filled with theological spies, with 
religious eavesdroppers, and all the snakes and reptiles ot 
the lowest natures, in this sunshine of religious authority, 
would uncoil and crawl. 

In this remarkable passage several things are ob- 
vious : 

(1) We see the usual, sweeping sneer at religion. 
In this instance it is that those who profess it are 
ignorant. The Colonel says, ''Intelligent people know 
that no one knows whether there be a God or not." 
What about Chancellor Kent, Isaac Newton, Her- 
schel. Strong, Marshall, and Chase? Were they in- 
telligent ? 

(2) We see here a denial of God's existence. "The 
existence of such a being is merely a matter of opin- 
ion." This is unmixed atheism. If God's existence 
is only a matter of opinion, then there is no God ; then 
the claim that there is a God — nay, the existence of 
God — is only a m3^th. A mere matter of opinion about 
God is not a fact as to God. In this averment Colonel 
Ingersoll denies the consciousness of universal Chris- 
tendom — hundreds of millions of people. That God 
exists, that he fills human souls with his light and 
presence and power, is not opinion at all, but fact — a 
fact attested by millions of people, who have lived in 
past ages, and by millions who are now living. 

(3) These statements contain, also, a malignant 
snarl against priests and ministers. But this is as 
usual as the Colonel's restlessness when the subject 
of hell is named, so that the editor of the Cincinnati 
Gazette described him as "the man afraid of hell." I 
would not say that the Colonel is afraid of priests, 
for probably he is not ; but if any one should swear 
that the Colonel does not hate ministers, he would 
be quite likely to perjure himself. His hatred of them 



420 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



is unconcealed, unappeasable, and morbid. It survives 
all accidents and changes. It is irrepressibly, offens- 
ively obtrusive. On all occasions, and with no amiable 
smiles, it ambles to the fronts and, like a vicious horse, 
is snaps its teeth at all within its reach. These out- 
bursts of rage and hostility abound throughout the 
entire paper ; and how unkind ! how untrue ! Among 
the signers of the Declaration was a Presbyterian 
minister — president of Nassau Hall, Princeton, after- 
wards Princeton College. Among the framers of the 
Constitution was an eminent Lutheran minister, and 
perhaps other ministers. During our Revolutionary 
struggle, in repeated instances, ministers preached 
and fought. The loyalty and courage of ministers in 
the late Rebellion were exemplary. Ministers are or- 
derly citizens. They pay taxes quite as honestly and 
as cheerfully as any other citizens. They obey the 
laws, and live useful, benevolent lives. Why should 
the Colonel pursue them as he does? Take the fol- 
lowing specimens : "Will there be a supreme tribunal 
of priests?" . . . 'What of the priest, the cardi- 
nal, and the pope, who wrest from the hand of pov- 
erty 'the single coin thrice earned?'" . . . "For 
many years priests have attempted to give this Gov- 
ernment a rehgious form." . . . "We have tried 
the government of priests, and we know that such 
governments are without mercy." . . . "The 
priest was no longer a necessity." . . . "There is 
a suspicion that the priest, the theologian, is not satis- 
fied with this ; he wishes to destroy the liberties of the 
people." 

I pause to inquire, What means this unappeasable, 
ferocious malignity against priests ? What is the mat- 
ter with our choleric, atheistic brother? When a per- 
son dwells exclusively, continuously, intensely, upon 
one line of thought, the fact naturally suggests mental 



REVIEW OF INGERSOLL. 



421 



unbalance, want of mental equilibrium ; examination 
is in order. Inquiry as to sanity or otherwise is at 
once deemed the fitting thing. 

This reiteration to weariness against ministers, 
these suspicions and innuendoes and direct attacks 
upon them as a class, painfully indicate a want of filial 
respect and duty. They ominously denote a willful, 
unfilial disregard of the Fifth Commandment, ''Honor 
thy father and thy mother." "It is an ill bird that 
fouls its own nest." For be it remembered that the 
man who so berates ministers is himself the son of a 
priest. Does he derive his unforgetting dislike of min- 
isters from his early associations as the son of one of 
them? Was he relating a chapter from his own life 
when he wrote, "We have tried the government of 
priests, and we know they are without mercy?" Must 
we then conclude that he was indeed so bad a lad that 
his father's rule had to be "without mercy?" or, was 
the father such a monster of cruelty that the best 
thing the son could say of him, long after he had 
passed away from earth, was that his "rule was with- 
out mercy?" In either case, we commend to our 
unhappy, blatant brother the Scripture which saith: 
"He that is unfaithful in least, is unfaithful also in 
much." A son who goes back on his earthly father, 
is quite likely to go back also on God. 

IV. Thk Colonki. abounds in unjust, unfair 
REASONING. — This is a specimen: 

To recognize a Deity in the organic law would be the 
destruction of religious liberty. 

His assertions being groundless, his fears are un- 
necessary. We already have a great deal of Christian- 
ity in our civilization. Of our citizens, forty millions 
are believers in Christ's religion. Besides these, 
twelve or fifteen millions are children; of the remain- 



422 SIXTV-OXE YEARS OF ITIXERAXT WORK. 



iiig five or eight millions, probably not one in fifty is 
of Colonel Ingersoll's unbelief. 

The informal, incidental pressure of Christianity 
upon the civil life of the country, and the infusion of 
its genius and spirit into our laws and institutions, 
are everywhere and every day seen. They can not be 
denied nor repressed. They will be seen and felt. It 
is inevitable. 

God is recognized and Christianity is recognized 
in every piece of gold and silver and paper money 
issued by the Government, bearing a date ; in our re- 
ligious and secular holidays established by law, in our 
convevances and charters, in our court and consres- 
sional and legislative records, in the Anno Domini 
which dates our time, in our diplomacy, and in all our 
legal instruments and chaplaincies. And if, in all 
these w^ays, God and the Christian religion have been 
recognized without materially marring our religious 
liberties, two things must be admitted : (i) That the 
term God in the Constitution would not much im- 
peril our liberties. (2) That our brother need not lose 
sleep through his concern for the safety of our relig- 
ious liberties. The Colonel makes a discovery, which, 
however, does not turn out to be true. He says : 

There has been in our country a divorce of Church and 
State. This follows as a natural sequence of the declaration 
that "governments derive their just powers from the consent 
of the governed." The priest was no longer a necessity. His 
presence was a contradiction of the principle on which the 
Republic was founded. He represented, not the authority 
of the people, but of some "Power from on High," and to 
recognize this other Power was inconsistent with free gov- 
ernment. The founders of the Republic at that time parted 
company with the priests, and said to them: "You may turn 
your attention to the other world — we will attend to the 
affairs of this." Equal liberty was given to all. But the 



REVIEW OF INGERSOLL. 



ultra-theologian is not satisfied with this; he wishes to de- 
stroy the liberties of the people; he wishes a recognition of 
his God as the source of authority, to the end that the Church 
may become the supreme power. 

He says, "There has been, in. our country, a di- 
vorce of Church and State." This statement is not 
true ; there has been no such divorce ; there can not 
be a divorce where there has been no marriage; the 
Church and the State have never been united in this 
country. Possibly, in some of the New England col- 
onies, and, perhaps, during their early Statehood 
some of them may have drawn from the pubhc treas- 
ury moneys to support the Churches, as they did also, 
and still do, to support the schools. But there has 
been properly and really no union of the Church and 
the State established by law, as is true in Great Britain 
and Russia. 

France and Belgium both contribute from the pub- 
lic chest for the support of religion, and yet in neither 
of those Governments is there a formal, legal union 
between the Church and the State. If the Colonel 
had said, ''The union of Church and State in this 
country has been prevented," that statement would 
have been more exactly correct. 

The Colonel says, "The priest was no longer a 
necessity." The priest has never been a necessity, po- 
litically considered, in this country. As a citizen he 
has equal right with the lawyer, the politician, or any 
other class, and, so far as known, he may be equally 
useful. 

We note, in the following paragraph, like hostility 
to ministers, and like false assumptions: 

For many years priests have attempted to give to our 
Government a religious form. Zealots have succeeded in 
putting the legend upon our money, "In God We Trust," 



424 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 



and we have chaplains in the army and navy, and legislative 
proceedings are usually opened with prayer. All this is con- 
trary to the genius of the Republic, contrary to the Declara- 
tion of Independence, and contrary really to the Constitution 
of the United States. We have taken the ground that the 
people can govern themselves without the assistance of any 
Supernatural Power. We have taken the position that the 
people are the real and only rightful source of authority. 
We have solemnly declared that the people must determine 
what is politically right and what is wrong, and that their 
legally-expressed will is the supreme law. This leaves no 
room for national superstition, no room for patriotic gods 
or supernatural beings, and this does away with the neces- 
sity for political prayers. 

It is not true that for many years priests have 
tried to give this Government a religious form. They 
have never tried to do so. It is true that some of 
them have sought to have God recognized in the 
Constitution ; but to accomplish this would not give 
this Government a religious form ; and that fact 
achieved, would not be a union of Church and State. 
To insert God's name in the Constitution would be a 
recognition of a fact already existing, that this is a 
Christian Nation; and it is such because made up of 
Christian people, and because its civilization is a 
Christian civilization. Chaplaincies in our Legisla- 
tures and hospitals and barracks and navy do not 
give our Government a religious form ; nor is the fact 
contrary to the genius of the Republic, the Declara- 
tion of Independence, or the Constitution of the 
United States; for while the first article declares 
"Congress shall make no law establishing religion," 
it also declares, it shall make no law "prohibiting the 
free exercise thereof." Congress does not make a law 
establishing religion when it has opened its sessions 
with prayer, and when it employs chaplains in army 
and navy and in our eleemosynary institutions. If 



i 



REVIEW OF INGERSOLL. 



425 



Congress should refuse to make provisions by law for 
such religious services, it would, thereby, be ''pro- 
hibiting the free exercise thereof/' 

V. C01.ONE1. Ingersoi.Iv misconceives the 

NATURE OF OUR CIVII.IZATION AND THE TRUE 

SCOPE AND SPIRIT OF OUR INSTITUTIONS. — The fol- 
lowing paragraph, while true in some of its positions, 
is as to others untrue and misleading: 

The Government of the United States is secular. It de- 
rives its power from the consent of man. It is a Govern- 
ment with which God has nothing whatever to do — and all 
forms and customs, inconsistent with the fundamental fact 
that the people are the source of authority, should be aban- 
doned. In this country there should be no oaths; no man 
should be sworn to tell the truth, and in no court should 
there be any appeal to any Supreme Being. A rascal, by 
taking the oath, appears to go in partnership with God, and 
ignorant jurors credit the firm instead of the man. A wit- 
ness should tell his story, and if he speaks falsely should be 
considered as guilty of perjury. Governors and Presidents 
should not issue religious Proclamations. They should not 
call upon the people to thank God. It is no part of their 
official duty. It is outside of and beyond the horizon of their 
authority. There is nothing in the Constitution of the United 
States to justify this religious impertinence. 

It is true the Government of the United States is 
secular, but it is not therefore pagan, Mohammedan, 
Brahmin, Confucian, or savage. Yet it can not fail 
to recognize and protect the religious rights and obli- 
gations of its Christian citizens. To fail to do so would 
be to violate the very first article of the Constitution, 
as we have seen. The Colonel says the Government of 
this country "derives its powers from the consent of 
man." This is not true ; its powers are "derived from 
the consent of the governed." The governed, in this 
case, are, for the chief part. Christians and citizens. 
They are to be governed, not as pagans, nor by means 



426 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

of a pagan civilization, but as Christians, and by a 
Christian civiHzation. 

Nor again, is it true that ours "is a Government 
with v^^hich God has nothing whatever to do." From 
the beginning of our history God has had very much 
to do with us. He still has; he will continue to have 
much to do with our Government and people. In the 
infancy of our existence, he gave victory to our army. 
He aided our fathers in founding our institutions and 
in framing our Constitution. Our Nation owes its in- 
tegrity to the Christian loyalty of its brave defenders, 
to whom God gave victory in the late Civil War. 

It is a non-sequitur to affirm, as Colonel Inger- 
soll does, that "in this coimtry there should be no 
oaths," and that "no one should be sworn to tell the 
truth ;" i. e., these conclusions do not follow from the 
nature and genius of our Government, and certainly 
not from the Constitution. Article 6 requires that "all 
senators and representatives and the members of the 
several Legislatures, and all executive and judicial 
officers of the several States, shall be bound by oath 
or affirmation to support the Constitution." 

The expedient by which Colonel Ingersoll would 
get testimony without administering oaths is imprac- 
ticable and deceptive. He says, "A witness should tell 
his story, and, if he speaks falsely, he should be con- 
sidered as guilty of perjury ;" i. c, he should be pun- 
ished as having committed perjury when he had not 
committed perjury, and, indeed, could not have com- 
mitted perjury, because he had not taken an oath 
at all. 

In his wish to avoid an appeal to God by a wit- 
ness, he would enact a fraud into law, and use a trick, 
and punish people for a crime not committed and not 
possible to be committed. His objection to an oath 
is peculiar. "The rascal, who appeals to God by an 



REVIEW OF INGERSOLL. . 427 



oath, appears to go into partnership with God, and ig- 
norant jurors credit the firm instead of the man." 

This is a shallow device to justify atheism in prac- 
tice. It is implied that "the ignorant jurors" hold 
evidence higher, in cases when the witness appeals to 
God, than when he does not. Here is another char- 
acteristic sneer at Christians. The jurors who believe 
in oaths are "ignorant jurors." It is implied, also, 
that the men who appeal to God in an oath, appear 
to take God into partnership, and that, in doing so, 
they adopt the policy of the rascal. 

The safer way, the surer way to get the truth from 
a witness, is to have him sworn. There may now and 
then be a rascal who commits perjury; but I would 
rather trust men who appeal to God than trust men 
who discard God, and who, instead, form a partnership 
with the devil. As at present advised, it is safer, all 
round, to trust the firm of God and Company than 
the firm of the devil and company. 

It is no infraction of the spirit and intent of the 
Constitution as it is; and, if it were, then the Consti- 
tution should be changed so that it would not be held, 
and could not be held, unconstitutional for presidents 
and governors to issue proclamations, appointing 
thanksgiving-days, and calling on the people to thank 
God. This policy is in line with all the declared pur- 
poses and objects of the Constitution, to recognize 
the moral nature of the citizen and the God to whom 
that moral nature holds relation, and whose provi- 
dence is in the thought and moral consciousness of 
nine-tenths of the citizens. The objects of the Con- 
stitution are "to establish justice, to form a more per- 
fect union, to insure domestic tranquillity, and the 
common defense, the general welfare, and the bless- 
ings of liberty." These objects are all subserved by 
exalting the sense of moral dependence and of moral 



428 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



obligation to God. Thanksgiving-days and fast-days, 
chaplains in army and navy, in Congress and Legis- 
latures, and in eleemosynary institutions, have this ten- 
dency, and therefore, in a high degree, they are con- 
stitutional. 

The Christians, who sustain this Government, and 
who from time to time administer it, certainly have 
as much stake in it, and as intelligently apprehend 
how great that stake is, and they are certainly quite 
as able and as well entitled to judge of the best way 
in which the objects sought by the Constitution can 
be subserved, as a man can be who declares that "the 
being of God is a mere matter of opinion." 

"One man should not be allowed to interfere with 
the liberty of another," says our atheistic friend, and 
so say I, and therefore I say to him, "Hands off." 
His liberty is license, as seen in his advocacy of the 
rights of D. M. Bennett to liberty after he had been 
convicted of a crime against society. 

The Colonel's by-play on God's ability to take 
care of himself, and therefore as not needing our 
help to get himself in the Constitution, is too flippant, 
after he has reduced God's existence to "a mere matter 
of opinion." Certainly God does not need our help 
so much as we need his. He can better afford to be 
non-recognized in the Constitution than we can afford 
to be non-recognized by him. 

The Colonel's account of God's government of the 
nations, and of his tyranny and injustice, are gross 
perversions and caricatures. It is proper to add as 
to the Colonel's paper, that some parts of it, in which^ 
he describes the nature and uses of an organic law, 
are well enough and true enough taken by them- 
selves, but he has marred and weakened their force 
by his gratuitous and vitriolic objurgations against 
the Bible and God and Christianity. 



REVIEW OF INGERSOLL. 429 

We are not tenacious for placing the name of God 
in the Constitution. This is a Christian Government, 
administered by Christian people and upon Christian 
principles, whatever may be in, or not in, the Consti- 
tution. If it were not a Christian Government, it 
would not long survive; and it is a Christian Govern- 
ment, none the less, that it is not declared to be in 
the organic law. 

VI. The idkai, government of Coi^oneIv Inger- 

SOLIv IS A logical ABSURDITY AND IMPOSSIBILITY. — ■ 

I raise the question as pertinent, in view of the passion- 
ate efforts of Colonel IngersoU to make our Republic 
atheistic. Where is there to be found, on the face of 
the earth, where has there ever been found, a nation 
of infidels or a civilization of atheists? What kind of 
a Government would that be? Nobody knows. No- 
body can conjecture. It would be a monstrosity the 
earth has never seen. There would be no controlling 
authority, no cohering vitality in it. 

Chaplain McCabe some years ago gave, as a 
dream, a picture of Ingersollville, a city from the civil- 
ization of which God was excluded, and the city was 
walled to keep God out. Lust and profanity and crime 
and robbery and violence and disorder prevailed, 
until the better class of atheists themselves fled from 
it in dismay, as they would from a pest-house. Infidels 
can not deny the existence, in our w^orld, of death, and 
grief and tears, and disappointment. What remedy do 
they propose for the sorrows of earth, which, sooner 
or later, come to all? What alleviation does atheism 
or agnosticism of¥er? 

Christianity presents a balm for every wounded 
heart, a cordial ^or our fears. It is efTective, it has 
been proved adequate by millions of our race, by vast 
numbers of our fellow-countrymen. Why seek to 
knock that prop down, until another, and at least an 



430 SIXTV-OXE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



equal support, is found? Then, moreover, this Repub- 
hc is to-day the richest and most potent on the face 
of the earth, and in cuhure and learning and intelli- 
gence and morals and civilization it excels every 
other. And to what shall we ascribe it ? All the other 
nations who approximate us in power and resources 
are Christian nations, and they are strong and pros- 
perous as they are Christian. 

What a terrible catastrophe it would be if Colonel 
Ingersoll's ideas should become prevalent in this 
country and world of ours ! Joy thus cut off from 
human hearts and lives by a blank atheism, or a 
blanker agnosticism, and the great Republic, so hon- 
ored and so exalted and prosperous, relegated to the 
dull stagnation and collapse which an atheistic con- 
trol of its affairs would superinduce ; we should re- 
semble that dead, ruined planet, the moon, upon whose 
lifeless, waterless, treeless, verdureless surface the 
fructifying light and warmth of the sun fall in vain. 
Mr. Ingersoll, himself, is what he is, not as an atheist, 
nor an agnostic, nor as the product of either, but as a 
man of brilliant powers, the product of the Christian 
civilization under which he was reared. He can not 
produce a civilization of atheism anywhere ; nor a man 
that was ever raised up under an atheistic civilization. 
He was not himself. He has not the power, thank 
God, to make of himself, because environed by Chris- 
tian influences, what he would be if raised up exclu- 
sively under the power of his own principles. 

The Colonel's vaporings against the religiousness 
of our civilization proceeds upon a false and vicious 
theory of our institutions. Our Government is a rep- 
resentative one. Tt should represent the Christian 
civilization of its constituents. It must do this, or it 
is not truly republican. Its constituency are not chim- 
panzees, apes, idiots, or atheists. For the most part, 



CENTRAL CHURCH, SPRINGFIELD. 



they are people of brains, good morals, and Christian 
lives and characters. As already stated, forty millions 
of them are such; fifteen millions more of them are 
minors ; of the remaining five millions, not the fiftieth 
part are of Colonel IngersoU's peculiar atheistic views. 
In its laws and administration our Government should 
reflect and represent the better qualities of the sixty 
milHons of its constituents, and it should not punish 
them in the way Colonel Ingersoll and his hundred 
thousand atheistic associates would propose. In other 
words, the dog should wag the tail, and not the tail 
the dog. A republican government which does not 
represent the learning, culture, 'brains, morals, and 
religion of its people, is a mockery^ a usurpation, and 
a fraud. For the Colonel, himself, we have profound 
sorrow and pit3^ He has abilities which, properly 
wielded, might be greatly serviceable to his country 
and his race ; abilities which would qualify him to 
govern men and guide the State. But these abilities 
perverted, as he seems bent on perverting them, may 
gain him the applause of libertines and base men, who 
want religion shorn and debased, so that their pol- 
lution and wrong may receive less rebuke and hin- 
drance. 

He may gain the plaudits of shallow thinkers and 
surface men, and he may wreck the faith and the lives 
of, here and there, a young man; but let him, as to him- 
self, remember : 

"One self-approving hour whole years outweighs 
Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas." 

Central Church, Springfield, numbered over 
one thousand members. I deemed it too large, and 
requiring too much labor to serve it longer, and 
having received an earnest application from the 



432 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

First Methodist Eipscopal Church of Xenia to be- 
come their pastor, I was appointed to that Church 
by Bishop Harris from the Conference of 1890. 
This is one of the oldest and most honored of the 
charges in the Conference. It has had some of the 
strongest and most eminent ministers in its long 
list of pastors. It would have been gratifying to 
have filled out the full term here. With this dear 
people and in this most delightful charge three very 
happy and not fruitless years were spent; but the 
presiding bishop, J. F. Hurst, and the Cabinet 
thought otherwise. Among the pastors who had 
served the First Methodist Episcopal Church in 
Xenia were Raper, Latta, Ancil Brooks, William 
Herr; J. F. Marlay, who has served the Church 
acceptably three full pastorates of two, three, and 
five years, and he would be current for a fourth 
term; Lucien Clark. 

Xenia has had notable revivals. The present 
pastor, 1898, is John J. McCabe, who completes his 
fifth year the present September. His great revival 
the first year of his term was a glorious work, in- 
deed. Some three hundred souls professed con- 
version. The present membership has increased 
from some .four or five hundred to eight hundred. 
During his fourth year a large Church improve- 
ment has been projected and carried to comple- 
tion. It increases the seating capacity from six 
hundred to twelve hundred. The appointments are 
all of the most modern type. They include church 
parlors, Sunday-school class-rooms, and committee- 
rooms, electric-lights, sheds for the country mem- 



CINCINNATI CONFERENCE RESOLUTION. 433 

bars' horses and carriages ; complete steam-heating 
arrangements are furnished. The outside is fin- 
ished in dark-brown and Ught-brown stone for 
foundations and front elevation, and the side walls 
in Milwaukee pressed brick. A new church with 
all these appointments would not cost less than 
.thirty thousand dollars. The acoustic quality is 
perfect. The ventilation is of the best. The ex- 
pense is all provided for. 

The Cincinnati Conference of 1890 has the fol- 
lowing entries on the third day of the session : 

The following paper, offered by F. G. Mitchell, 

was adopted : 

*'Whi5rKas, Our brother, Thomas H. Pearne, will 
close, in 1891, fifty years of connection with the Meth- 
odist itinerancy, during which time he has passed 
through exceedingly varied and interesting experi- 
ences; therefore, 

"Resolved, That we respectfully request Dr. Pearne 
to preach a semi-centennial sermon at some time dur- 
ing the next Conference session. F. G. Mitchell, 
George H. Dart, J. P. Porter, Thomas Lee, W. I. Fee, 
R. H. Rust, W. L. Hypes, J. T. Bail, J. F. Marlay. 

"On motion of J. F. Conrey, the time for the 
service was fixed for the evening preceding the Con- 
ference." 

On the fourth day of the same session, on mo- 
tion of J. F. Conrey, the time for Dr. Pearne's 
semi-centennial sermon was changed from Tues- 
day evening to some morning hour. During the 
year, hy correspondence with Bishop Foster, who 
28 



434 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 



was to preside at the Cincinnati Conference in 1891, 
the time was fixed for the morning of the opening 
session, as a part of the opening exercises. 

In the opening Proceedings of the Conference, 
it is stated: 

''By request of the Conference, at its last year's 
session, Thomas H. Pearne, D. D., preached a semi- 
centennial sermon." 

On the second day of the session. Dr. J. F. Mar- 
lay presented a resolution as follows, viz. : 

''Resolved, That, having listened with great delight 
and satisfaction to the semi-centennial sermon of Rev. 
Thomas H. Pearne, D. D., at the opening session of 
our Conference, we do earnestly request its publica- 
tion in pamphlet form, as a part of the permanent his- 
torical literature of our Church. Signed by William 
Herr and J. F. Marlay. The motion was adopted by 
a rising vote." 

I have been advised to reprint the sermon in this 
volume, and I do so for the following reasons : 
I. Much of the matter in it is not found in this 
book; 2. There is no provision for issuing subse- 
quent editions of the sermon; 3. The first edition 
was long ago exhausted. 

SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 

Dkar Fathers and Brkthrkn : 

In attempting a special sermon like this, I can 
not escape a feeling of timidity and shrinking, lest 
it should seem too much like self-appreciation. 
Pray, dear brethren, that self may sink from view, 



Mr SEMI-CBINTENNIAL SERMON. 



435 



and that Christ may be exalted. I trust I can say — 
I know I want to say — most sincerely, in the words 
of Charles Wesley's hymn : 

" Whate'er iu me seems wise or good, 
Or strong, I here disclaim ; 
I wash my garments in the blood 
Of the atoning Lamb." 

And so we are brought to the chosen theme of this 
discourse, which is : "The supreme aim of all true 
Christians is, that God may be honored and magni- 
fied." This being the fact as to Christians in general, 
it is pre-eminently so of those who have for a long 
term, and in God's higher ministries, shared his abun- 
dant mercies. 

The following Scripture texts illustrate and en- 
force this duty: 

" I will bless the Lord at all times ; his praise shall con- 
tinually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in 
the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O 
magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name to- 
gether!" — PsAi^M XXXIV, 1-3. 

To magnify the Lord is to recognize him con- 
tinually by praise ; to boast in him ; to exalt his name 
of wisdom, power, and grace as shown to his servants. 

"Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: 
let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be 
magnified." — Psai.m xl, 16. 

Those who seek the Lord rejoice and are glad 
in him. Those who love his salvation have no other 
desire but that God should be magnified. 

"I will praise the name of God with a song, and will 
magnify him with thanksgiving." — Psai,m i^xix, 30. 

"And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also 
dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name 
of the Lord Jesus was magnified." — Acts xix, 17. 



436 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



"According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that 
in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as 
always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, 
whether it be by life or by death." — Phii^ippians i, 20. 

This service of magnifying the Lord is due for 
personal and official blessings ; for the pleasure God 
has in the prosperity of his servants ; for God's sav- 
ing strength, and for the work that God does in men 
and by men, and esp'ecially by means of consecrated 
men, and for the honor God confers in making us 
*Vorkers together v^ith him." 

I. 

I find abundant reasons, in my personal expe- 
rience of God, for all these years of blessing in his 
service, for magnifying the Lord. For the zeal and 
constancy God has given me through a long and 
diversified career; for his providential care in all the 
remarkable conditions of a hfe of more than an aver- 
age of incident through which I have come ; for en- 
abling me to learn and love and practice, to some de- 
gree, Mr. Wesley's golden maxims; namely, ''Do 
all the good you can, by all the means you can, in 
all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all 
the times you can, to all the people you can, and as 
long as you can" — for all this I magnify the Lord. 

A few weeks ago, I received a letter from a pre- 
siding elder in one of the largest and most influential 
Conferences in the connection. He stands in the 
front rank of the men of power among us, although 
he is nearing his threescore and ten. His district 
has over seventy-five appointments, on a string one 
hundred miles long and no width, with a growing city 
on one end. He writes, with typewriter, fourteen hun- 
dred letters in a year on the business of his district. 



My SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 437 



Such a man, with snch a capacity and success, should 
magnify the Lord. His Hfe does. And yet there were 
preachers who, after he had preached twenty-five 
years, advised him to retire and give the young men 
a chance. He repHed, in substance : "I will not stand 
in your way. If you want my place, prove your bet- 
ter right to it by your doing, and the Church and 
God will give it to you." I magnify the Lord's name 
that this noble, glorious man had the grace to decline 
to step down and out until God should clearly so 
direct him. 

Some one has well said that the union of age and 
youth in Church-life — the fire and energy of the on& 
and the chastened caution of the other — should ever 
be blended in the work for Christ. We do not retire 
bishops and college presidents and professors when 
they reach a ripe age. Our cause suffers no harm in 
consequence. On the contrary, it is subserved. The 
same writer adds : ''Young ministers and laymen who 
are full of the Holy Ghost are charged with enthu- 
siasm as a battery is charged with electricity. They 
have had no defeats and little experience in Church 
work. It is well that there are always some in the 
Church who have not had much experience. Inex- 
perienced Christians have their mission. To balance 
and guide this youthful energy, there are the con- 
servatism and caution of the older members. Let not 
the young become impatient of the counsels of the 
old, and let not the old despise the zeal and hope of 
the young. Separate them, and neither will prosper. 
Unite them, and let the love of God blend them into 
perfect harmony, and the Church will be 'fair as the 
moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with 
banners.' " 

As a preparation for the life God has enabled mc 
to live, he gave me, for three generations, a godly 



438 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 



Methodist ancestry, and a holy father and mother, 
in a beautiful Christian home. That is to say, I was 
well-born. For forty-two years my father was a Meth- 
odist traveling preacher. My maternal grandfather 
and great-grandfather were local preachers in Mr. 
Wesley's connection. They doubtless received their 
licenses to preach from his hands. 

My eldest brother, who went to his reward last No- 
vember, answered the Conference roll-call for fifty- 
five years ; my own name has stood on the list fifty 
years ; making for my father and his two sons one hun- 
dred and forty years of ministerial work, an average 
for each of forty-six and one-third years.* At eight 
years of age, during a great revival among children 
in my boyhood village, in Central New York — New 
York Mills — I was graciously saved. I knew the re- 
newing and adopting grace of God'. Rev. Bishop 
Edward G. Andrews was also converted in the same 
revival. After a year or two, I declined in piety ; but 
at thirteen I was powerfully reclaimed. At fifteen, in 
the same village, I was appointed a class-leader, with 
a class numbering forty members. Six months later, 
I received a license as an exhorter from Rev. Schuyler 
Hoes, preacher in charge of New York Mills Station. 
At sixteen I was licensed as a local preacher. From 
that time forward I have been engaged in the blessed 
work of the Christian ministry. 

For the grace, which has cheered and sustained 
me through a long and happy life, and which, for the 
last seventeen years, has kept me under the power 



* This was printed several years ago. It should be cor- 
rected thus: Father's ministry as an itinerant extended from 
1832 to 1874 — forty-two years; my brother's, fifty-five years; 
and my own, sixty-one years; in all, one hundred and fifty- 
eight years, an average of fifty-two and two-third years. 



Mr SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 439 



of the cleansing blood of Christ, and which, as junior 
circuit preacher, preacher in charge, presiding elder, 
missionary, and Christian editor, has kept me going, 
and given me success, I magnify the Lord. Twenty- 
eight years I have served as a pastor. Twelve years 
I have been presiding elder, and ten years editor of 
Christian journals. Mr. Wesley requested one of his 
preachers to write an account of his life. He was 
reluctant to do so. Mr. Wesley said : "I really think 
you owe it (in spite of shame and timidity) to God, 
to me, and to your brethren." 

II. 

After having passed my threescore and ten years, 
and more than two-thirds of them in the ministry, 
I present this brief sketch to the honor of God, and 
upon the call of my brethren. 

God makes honorable mention of the aged. Of 
Moses, when he had reached sixscore years, it is said : 
*'His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." 
At eighty-five, Caleb said he was as strong as at forty- 
five. When Joshua was five and a half score years old, 
God commended his piety, fidelity, and success. 

God requires respect to be shown to the aged, and 
especially to those who have grown old in his service. 
He recognizes the value of the experience and wis- 
dom which age should gather and dispense. By a 
wise provision, God links dif¥erent generations to 
each other by a few long lives. These gather and 
transmit historical truth from the earlier times to the 
later; and for this we have warrant in the following: 
"Remember the days of old, consider the years of 
many generations : ask thy father, and he will shew 
thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee." (Deut. 
xxxii, 7.) Between Adam and Noah, there was but 
one life, and that life was his father's. When Adam 



440 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



died, Noah's father was fifty -six years old. Noah may 
have seen and conversed with those who had known 
Adam. 

Abraham was born fifty-eight years before Noah 
died. Methuselah, Noah's grandfather, lived two hun- 
dred and fifty years before Adam died. He was con- 
temporary with Noah several hundred years. Really, 
Noah's, Lamech's, and Adam's lives spanned the years 
between Abraham and the creation. Abraham may 
have talked with some of his ancestors, who had seen 
and talked with some of Adam's contemporaries. 

III. 

During the present year we observed the anniver- 
sary of John Wesley's death. Blessed man ! honored 
of God, and revered b}^ millions on earth and in 
heaven, for the work he did for God and man ! Yet 
in Wesle3''s ancestors of three or four generations, 
God connected Wesley's times with those of Luther, 
Zwingli, Melanchthon, Knox, and Calvin. 

Through my ancestors I touch the generation that 
touched the great reformers of the fifteenth century. 
Benn Pitman, the stenographer, claims to be the only 
man in the United States who has shaken hands with 
one who has shaken hands with John Wesley. I chal- 
lenge this statement. Mrs. Lester, of New York Mills, 
N. Y., where I grew up, had often heard Mr. Wesley 
preach, and had shaken hands with him. I have re- 
peatedly shaken hands with ]\Irs. Lester. In 1840 
and 1841, Rev. James Jay was a member of the charge 
I filled during those years. Mr. Jay had been a mem- 
ber of Mr. Wesley's Conference for years before Mr. 
Wesley's death. He gave me many touching and 
beautiful incidents of Wesley. He had often shaken 
hands with Mr. Wesley, and I have, not seldom, 
shaken hands with him. Thus long lives connect not 



MV SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 441 



only distant generations, but great historic events. 
The Wyoming massacre occurred July 3, 1783. I have 
shaken hands and conversed with a lady in that val- 
ley, who was present when Brandt and General Butler 
entered the fort after that bloody killing. In the same 
valley, a matronly lady, Mrs. Dennison, daughter-in- 
law of Colonel Dennison, who commanded the United 
States forces on that dreadful day, entertained Bishops 
Asbury and McKendree in her house for over a week 
when she was a bride. She gave me interesting in- 
cidents of that memorable week. My father saw and 
heard Bishops McKendree and George. He also 
heard the eminent John Summerfield, who, at twenty- 
five, was deemed one of the most eloquent preachers 
in America. My personal acquaintance with Meth- 
odist bishops began with Bishop R. R. Roberts, who 
presided at the Conference when I was admitted on 
trial. Bishop Roberts w^as the first married man who 
filled the office of a Methodist bishop in America. 
He was elected in 1816. He was tall and elegant in 
form and bearing. I heard him preach a sermon of 
great power on Luke xvi, 29, 30, 31 : ''They have 
Moses and the prophets, let them hear them," etc. 
He remarked that a visitant to our world, sent from 
the place of torment to warn men against going there, 
would be much more likely to terrify them than to 
persuade them to be saved. In that connection he 
quoted the well-known lines of Shakespeare, thus : 
"Causing 

* Each particular hair to stand on end, 
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.' " 

Except Roberts and Burns, Bishops of Lyiberia, I have 
personally known all the bishops since elected. Soule, 
who ordained me a deacon, had dignity, amounting 
almost to hauteur. Hedding was the Webster of the 



442 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF .ITINERANT WORK. 



Episcopal College. He was well stocked with judicial 
sense. Waugh ordained me an elder. He was cour- 
teous and refined. Emory was scholarly. Janes was 
brimming with authority. Morris, like the great West 
whence he came, was large, strong, sensible, and 
kindly. Hamline was one of the most eloquent of 
preachers. At times his preaching was overpower- 
ing. I have seen audiences swayed under his elo- 
quence as trees of the forest in a mighty wind. Of 
the bishops later elected, I need not speak more spe- 
cifically. The rank and file of this Conference have 
seen the most of them. They will soon see and know 
the remainder and their immediate successors. 

I personally knew some of the earlier celebrities 
of our Church, who, while not reaching episcopal 
honors, were not a whit behind the chiefest of our 
bishops in talents, in pulpit power, and in wide, far- 
reaching influence. Of these I name William Case, 
the missionary to the Indians in Canada. Dr. Nathan 
Bangs entered the New York Conference in 1802, 
only eighteen years after our Church was organized. 
He was often in our home in my early childhood. 
He baptized me in Duane Street Church, in New 
York. Rev. Dr. William Phoebus, who entered the 
traveling connection 1783; Samuel Merwin, Daniel 
Ostrander, Billy Hibbard, Marmaduke Pearce, Ben- 
jamin Bidlack, George Lane, George Peck, Alfred 
Griffith; Henry Boehm, Asbury's traveling compan- 
ion; John A. Collins, John P. Durbin, Elias Bowen, 
and so many more, laid their hands in blessing on my 
head in my boyhood. 

IV. 

George Gary was a man of marvelous eloquence 
and power. Fifty odd years ago I heard him preach 
a sermon at a camp-meeting, which first drew his 



MV SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 443 



audience to their feet in a dense mass around him, 
and then I saw probably a hundred or more of them 
fall senseless to the earth as though stricken with 
death. His sermon was preached at the eight o'clock 
hour, Sunday morning. Great numbers were gather- 
ing to the service, and the conditions under ordinary 
circumstances would have been unfavorable to marked 
effect. His sermon was only twenty minutes in 
length; the text, Gen. xix, 17: ''Escape for thy Hfe." 
There was no more preaching on the ground that day. 
Prayers and conversions and shouts and songs were 
continued all over the camp all day long. 

I cite another example of "the falling exercise," 
as it was called. It was in the midst of a sweeping re- 
vival. Many had been converted. A great snow- 
storm made the attendance on this occasion small. 
Not over forty persons were present. The previous 
night five hundred were in the church. My father, the 
pastor, was talking in a subdued tone. The meeting 
was very quiet. No apparent excitement was seen. 
All at once, as the people sat listening to the preacher, 
they began to fall over, and became unconscious. 
Some of them at once fell to the floor. Others fell on 
the seat. There was no outcry, no shouting, no dem- 
onstration except the falling. Only three maintained 
an upright position — my father, another, and myself. 
All others were unconscious. Some of them remained 
thus for twenty-four hours. Some became conscious 
in a few minutes. Some recovered silently, others 
awoke shouting, and still others were singing. Some 
of them were rigid. Some were limp. 

V. 

In my childhood days my father's library was well 
supplied with Methodist biography and history. These 
CO me were very fascinating. They kindled in me a 



444 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

love of adventure in Christ's work, and sent me, later, 
as a missionary to Oregon. I read Wesley's and As- 
bury's Journals with great avidity. As I read Asbury's 
adventures in crossing the AUeghanies in West Vir- 
ginia, and the Cumberland Mountains in Tennessee, 
and of his having to wait at Bean's Station for his 
party to become numerous enough to make the cross- 
ing into Kentucky safe from Indian assaults ; of his 
escapes from Indian ambuscades and attacks ; of his 
perils by flood and field, — I wondered whether such 
heroism could ever again be repeated. But frontier 
life has been quite as full of exciting passages since 
Asbury's time as it was before. In my fourteen years' 
sojourn in Oregon I had probably as many intensely 
thrilling adventures and experiences as he had in his 
early ministry in the West. I often swam rivers on 
horseback. I have been pursued and fired upon by 
bandits. I have had stirring passages with hostile 
Indians. I have slept imder God's stars in the open 
prairie, with saddlebags for my pillow and my faith- 
ful mule as my only companion. 

In March, 1854, in company with Bishop Simpson, 
I slept on the banks of the Columbia River, under 
blankets, our camp being behind an immense rock, 
on a cold night, a rousing fire at our feet to keep us 
warm and protect us from ravenous wolves and cou- 
gars. I give two or three other incidents with Bishop 
Simpson. 

We ascended the Columbia from the Cascades to 
the Dalles in a large Indian canoe. In the canoe were 
nets and squaws and dogs, innumerable fleas, and gen- 
eral discomfort. Two drunken white men were in the 
canoe. Their speech was coarse, profane, and ob- 
scene. They were more degraded than the Indians 
and their dogs. One of them was a graduate of In- 
diana Asbury University. Gently and kindly the 



MV SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 445 



bishop Spoke to him, making tender reference to his 
mother and her prayers. We parted company at night 
at Dog River. The two white men crossed the river. 
The bishop and I slept in the Indian's wigwam. Ten 
years and a half afterward, on the Upper Columbia 
River, I met the Indiana student of the canoe inci- 
dent. He was well-dressed and well-looking. He told 
me he was then a married man, with three children^ 
having a good Christian home, a fine farm, himself 
and wife Christians, on their way to heaven. He 
owed it all to the timely words of Bishop Simpson. 

We were much baffled in descending the Columbia 
by strong up-river winds. Repeated attempts to go 
down the river were vain. The bishop chided my 
impatience, remarking that it was doubtless a provi- 
dential detention for some good purpose. It was on 
this occasion that we slept on the river bank. Reach- 
ing" Portland we found that the steamer, which con- 
trary winds had prevented us from getting to in time, 
and on which we should have been if unhindered, 
had blown up at her wharf, instantly killing twenty- 
nine of the thirty passengers on board. 

On another occasion, the bishop and I suddenly 
came upon a cavalcade of several hundred Indians, 
all well mounted and armed. The Inaians were hos- 
tile. Among them we found an Indian who could 
talk English. Through him we were introduced to 
the other Indians as Methodist preachers, and we were 
safe. If they had believed us Indian agents, Indian 
traders, or United States military, and we could not 
have convinced them to the contrary, we should have 
been killed. 

VI. 

In the golden age of memory, those earlier times 
have a rich autumnal tint. If too free a rein be given 
to fancy, the glamour may be distorting and mislead- 



446 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF IT I NE RANT WORK. 

ing. There were many excellencies then. There 
were also serious defects. In many ways the present 
period shows a marked superiority over the former. 

The refinement of to-day puts to blush the ruder 
coarseness of the past. The impure jest^ the profane 
word, the seclusion and inferior lot assigned to 
woman, the lack of comfort in hospitals and infirm- 
aries, the brutal treatment of the insane, idiots, and 
paupers, were common to that earHer period. 

Political partisanism was harsh. Public manners 
were coarse. Drunkenness was open and shameless. 
Ignorance and prejudice were conspicuous in many 
ways, in comparison with the present more general 
diffusion of education. All these prove that the former 
times were not better than the present. They were 
much worse. 

Fifty years ago I conducted a funeral service. The 
deceased was a very aged lady. Twelve children, fifty 
grandchildren, and twelve great-grandchildren — in 
all, seventy-four descendants of the deceased — were 
present. After the burial, all the family, and other 
relatives and guests, repaired to the mansion and 
dined. Costly viands tempted the appetite through 
eight courses. Wines and all the various kinds of 
distilled liquors were on the sideboard. 

The dwellings and churches of the fathers were 
severely plain and rude. Woman was accorded less 
respect and freedom than now. Fewer occupations 
\vere open to her for earning a living. In the home, 
on public occasions, on the rostrum, in legislatures 
and courts, and in general intercourse, there was less 
of refinement than now. The schools and colleges 
were less advanced in grade than at present. As to 
the comforts and luxuries and refinements of life, in 
all lines, the present is far in advance of the former 
period. 



MV SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 447 

Members and ministers of the different Churches, 
our own included, bought and sold slaves, and held 
them for gain. More, they defended slavery from the 
Bible. But for the sturdy resistance which conscien- 
tious Abolitionists in our Church, lay and ministerial, 
made to the encroachments of the slave-power, slavery 
would have captured and dominated all the States and 
Territories of the Republic. The fidelity gind firmness 
of our fathers of half a century ago, and more, caused 
the Church secession of 1845. I^rom that came, six- 
teen years later, the Rebellion of 1861, and so the 
Nation was saved to liberty. In Christian homes was 
the sideboard, with intoxicating beverages. Treating 
at elections and at raisings was prevalent. The license 
system tolerated and protected the drink-traffic. It 
would be difficult to-day to find any Church in the 
Nation with moral hardihood enough to tolerate the 
traffic. All intelligent Christians regard the licensing 
and taxing of the system as of the nature of a bribe 
to induce compliance with the infernal traffic, and as 
a moral complicity with the sin. Taxing the drink- 
traffic, as in Ohio, is a clever dodge of the politicians 
working in the interests, and possibly in the pay, of 
the venders and manufacturers of intoxicants. Against 
this form of complicity with the infernal business, as 
well as that of the license system, our Discipline very 
properly levels its prohibition. 

In resolute, unflinching hostility to the drink- 
habit and the drink-traffic, and in favor of the total 
prohibition of both, the Methodist Episcopal Church 
has led the way ; and as surely as that God lives, and 
right is stronger than wrong, the American saloon will 
become a thing of the past. As surely as slavery has 
disappeared from our Nation, so surely will the deadly, 
Satanic liquor-traffic disappear. Political parties will 
be smashed, and slates will be broken, and contention 



448 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

and bloodshed may be seen — aye, even riot and war 
may precede that victory; but come it will; 

•'For right is right, since God is God, 
And right the day must win; 
To doubt would be disloyalty, 
To falter would be sin." 

In large measure the honor of the grand achieve- 
ment will be given to our beloved Church. May 
the Lord hasten the day of its utter overthrow! How 
I would like to witness its annihilation, and to join 
in the bannered procession which shall celebrate the 
abolition of the American saloon! 

Zealous as were many of our fathers in extend- 
ing religion, marked improvement has come, both as 
to modes of working and economy of forces, and also 
as to the ratio of progress made. Persons yet living 
can remember when there was no regular,' liberal, 
systematic support of missions in our Church; when 
Liberia and South America were our only foreign mis- 
sions; when we had no Church Extension Society; 
when there were no organized, ef¥ective, educational 
movements, no Christian libraries nor Christian liter- 
ature worth the name; when our Church journalism 
was weak and scantily patronized; when our Book 
Concerns were small and feeble; when our Church 
edifices were plain and unattractive; when our semi- 
naries, colleges, and universities were unendowed and 
weakly; when the support of our effective ministers 
was scanty and precarious, and when the support of 
our superannuates was still more stinted and inade- 
quate; when our statistics were meager and imperfect. 
It was not until the General Conference of 1856 that 
our statistics included the number of deaths and of 
baptisms of infants and adults; the number and value 



MY SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 449 

of churches and parsonages; and the contributions 
for missions from Sunday-schools, and other benevo- 
lent collections and doings of our Church. In their 
insertion into our Discipline I took a leading part. 

VII. 

In all these, and many other things, wonderful 
changes have come. I cite a few examples : 

Forty-two years ago, I was stationed in Wilkes- 
barre, Penn., then and now one of the wealthiest of 
our Methodist charges. I was pastor of the only 
Methodist Church in that borough. Since then four 
strong Churches have swarmed from the old hive, 
each of them having better churches and parsonages 
than mine were when I went to that charge. My 
allowance was four hundred dollars, the highest salary 
paid within the Conference. .Our church, erected dur- 
ing my incumbency, was a brick structure, costing ten 
thousand dollars. It was plain and unpretentious. 
The parsonage was worth perhaps six hundred or 
eight hundred dollars. 

After settling these four daughters in their sev- 
eral Church homes, the mother Church, which I 
served, has an elegant edifice, of modern appointments, 
costing, say, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 
The pastor lives in a fine parsonage, costing, say, 
fifteen thousand dollars, on a salary of three thousand 
five hundred dollars. Prior to the Wilkesbarre pas- 
torate was that of Binghamton, N. Y. The church 
in that place was a square, unsightly object, called 
''The Eel-pot." My allowance was three hundred and 
fifty dollars. Here is noted a like advance, as in the 
former case. 

These are only samples. In the march of civ- 
29 



450 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERAXT WORK. 



ilization the whole country has advanced with giant 
strides. Our Church has kept pace with the material 
and intellectual progress. Other improvements await. 

"Not in vain the distance "beacons. Forward, forward let us 
range ! 

Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves 
of change. 

Through the shadow of the globe we sweep into the 

younger day; 
Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay." 

VIII. 

Of the five years of service I put into the recon- 
struction of our Church in the South I may not 
speak in detail. It was harder than the Oregon work, 
and quite as perilous. I was fired upon in Knoxville 
before I had been there a month. I was threatened 
by Ku-klux and conspired against by ex-rebels. 
Under the severe pressure, my health completely gave 
way, compelling a suspension of my work there, and 
my temporary retirement into the less arduous duties 
of United States consul in Kingston, Jamaica. 

In company with Bishop D. W. Clark and Dr. 
Adam Poe, I was present at the organization of the 
Holston Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, in June, 1865. I also accompanied them to 
Atlanta, Ga., assisting in reorganizing and arranging 
our work there. I have never placed as high an esti- 
mate upon my service in the South as upon that in 
Oregon. I hope God will make all he can out of it. 
Fruitless my labors there were not, yet I should like 
to have scored a larger, mightier success. 

IX. 

The best work of my life was in Oregon. From 
185 1 to 1865 — fourteen years — I served the Church 
as presiding elder and editor, helping to lay, in that 



MV SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 45 1 

then most distant of our Territories, the foundations 
of civil, social, and religious liberty. 

Before and after Oregon was organized into an 
Annual Conference, I wrought to extend our work 
in that field. It was a foreign mission when I went. 
Before its organization as a regular Annual Confer- 
ence, I was organizing circuits and placing mission- 
aries upon them, and I was doing evangelistic work. 
One summer I attended seven camp-meetings in as 
many successive weeks. In these seven weeks myself 
and wife slept in a house but one night, and in them 
all we had no rain. In each of them we had precious 
revivals. At the camp-meeting in the forks of the 
Santiam, one of the seven, I preached a doctrinal ser- 
mon on baptism, of three and a half hours in length. 
Remarkable as it may seem, the hearers all staid until 
the close. After Oregon was organized as a part of 
our regular domestic work, I was appointed the first 
presiding elder. I was also the first editor and pub- 
lisher of the Pacific Christian Advocate, the first and 
only Methodist journal ever issued in Oregon. In 
1854 I was elected to the presidency of the Oregon 
Conference, a position I held from Wednesday until 
Sunday afternoon, when Bishop Simpson reached the 
seat of the Conference. I found Oregon a sparsely- 
settled wilderness. I left it a blooming, beautiful 
garden. It has since become far more attractive and 
productive than any other equal area of Methodism 
in any part of the world within my knowledge. Allow 
a comparison. When, forty years ago, I went to Ore- 
gon, we had one district. There were three churches, 
worth, say, $15,000; and two parsonages, worth, say, 
$5,000. There were fifteen traveling and seventeen 
local preachers, and there were four hundred members. 

The figures which show the marvelous result seem 
incredible. Within the limits of the field I literally 



452 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



traversed, twoscore years ago, there are 4 Annual Con- 
ferences, 195 traveling and 179 local preachers, 19,000 
members, 223 churches, worth $885,000, and 109 par- 
sonages, worth $176,000, equaling $1,061,000 as the 
value of our church property. 

There are to-day fifteen times as many traveling 
preachers, ten times as many local preachers, forty- 
seven and one-half times as many members, seventy- 
four times as many churches, and fifty-four- times as 
many parsonages. The value of the church and par- 
sonage property has increased forty-fold. Consider 
another aspect of this amazing growth. 

It is furnished by later statistics, and these in- 
clude the following facts as to Oregon alone, and 
in relation, also, to the statistics of four other lead- 
ing denominations of Oregon: 

Societies, Methodist, 211 — Members, 10,050 

Baptist, .... 107 " . . 5,043 

" Presbyterian, . . 70 " . . 3,575 

" Episcopalian, .32 " . . 1,600 

" Congregational, 29 " . . 1,609 

237 11,827 

Thus it is seen that in Oregon, alone, there are 
almost as many Methodist societies and members, as 
in the other four leading Churches, altogether. 

I have spoken of the Pacific Christian Advocate, 
now in its thirty-seventh volume. You will be inter- 
ested to learn of its genesis and early history. 

The publishing of a weekly religious paper in 
connection with our work in Oregon was frequently 
discussed by the leading ministers and laymen — nota- 
bly by J. R. Robb and Ex-Governor Abernethy, 
wholesale merchants and lumber-dealers in Oregon 
City, and by Alexander Abernethy, of Oak Point. 
Several meetings for consultation were held at Ore- 
gon City, Salem, and Portland. These resulted in the 



MV SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 



453 



creation of a joint-stock company, with a subscription 
of $3,500, the supposed cost of the necessary outfit. 

The subscribers to the stock, as I now recall them, 
were James R. Robb, Alexander Abernethy, laymen; 
and Revs. C. S. Kingsley, Alvin F. Waller, Josiah 
Iv. Parrish, Thomas H. Pearne, and perhaps, also, 
Gustavus and Harvey K. Hines, and others; but of 
these last names I can not be certain. 

I was selected editor of the projected paper, and 
was instructed to order the necessary office fixtures 
and material. Subsequently the joint-stock company 
dissolved, and I became sole proprietor, publisher, and 
editor of the paper. 

The first number of the Advocate was issued in 
Salem, early in the summer of 1855. 

There was then no provision of the Discipline 
by which a member of an Annual Conference could 
be appointed to the conduct of an unofficial religious 
paper. I was therefore appointed agent of the Willa- 
mette University, a nominal appointment, to enable 
me also to conduct the paper, and still remain a mem- 
ber of Conference. 

Although the necessary stock was subscribed, the 
payments were tardy. I at last assumed the respon- 
sibility of ordering an office and a six months' supply 
of paper. A relative of mine, Francis Hall, Esq., pub- 
lisher of the New York Commercial Adzrrtiser, selected 
and forwarded the fixtures and material for the new 
paper. As these had to be shipped via Cape Horn, 
it was nearly six months from the time of ordering 
them before we received them. 

At the ensuing Annual Conference session of 1855, 
I was elected a co-delegate to the General Conference, 
which met in Indianapolis, May, 1856, with the late 
Rev. William Roberts, formerly a superintendent of 
Methodist missions in California and Oregon. 



454 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

The General Conference directed the New York 
Book Agents to purchase the plant of the Facific 
Christian Advocate, at a cost not to exceed $3,500, and 
continue the publication of the Pacific Christian Advo- 
cate in Oregon. I was elected editor of the paper in 
1856, by the General Conference, and re-elected in 
i860. I was urged by many laymen to be a candidate 
in 1864, and my Conference urged it upon me to con- 
tinue in the editorship; but I declined. 

The first size of the paper was a mistake. It was 
a large blanket sheet of four pages. It was unwieldy, 
inconvenient, and unattractive in size and form. The 
first issue was badly printed, and on this account it 
was more unattractive. Yet it succeeded. The pub- 
lishers have done well to bring it into more portable 
and compendious form for reading and for preser- 
vation. 

There was some diversity of view as to the proper 
location of the office. Some thought Oregon City 
the better place, as it was between Salem and Port- 
land. Portland was vigorously urged, and really it 
should have been located there at the start, as it was 
after several months' publication in Salem, then the 
capital of the Territory, and afterward of the State. 
The Salem office of publication was a small, one-story, 
unpainted building, where cases, press, imposing- 
stone, and paper supply, were very inconveniently 
huddled together. 

My sanctum was a small room eight or ten feet 
square. When letters, editorials, and contributions 
got promiscuously piled in heaps on my table, the con- 
fusion was bewildering. It was often the case that 
answers to important letters were delayed, and edi- 
torials were "lost to sight, and yet to memory dear." 

The exact date when the first number was issued 
in Salem I can not now give. An amusing incident 



MV SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 



455 



occurred in that Salem office, the recital of which will 
perhaps be enjoyed. 

A man who had crossed the Plains on foot, an 
enthusiastic reformer as to the Indian policy, came 
into the office. He inquired of me where he could 
find Rev. Mr. Pearne, the editor of that paper, as he 
greatly desired to see him. I said : 

*Xook at me, and you will see the man who bears 
that name." 

'What!" said he, "you Mr. Pearne? It can 
not be!" 

'Why can not it be?" said I. 

''Well," said he, "ever since I was a boy I have 
been reading articles written in Church papers by you, 
and I expected to see a man of threescore years at 
least, wrinkled, bowed, and tottering." 

"Well," said I, "Pearne is the name I have always 
borne. I came honorably by it. I am not ashamed 
of it. I am glad I favorably disappoint you as to my 
age; and really, I never expect to get old and wrinkled 
and bowed." 

It was somewhat difficult to fix upon a suitable 
name for the new paper. The following names were 
proposed: North Pacific Christian Herald, The Pa- 
cific, The Pacific Methodist, Oregon Christian Advo- 
cate, Oregon Banner, Oregon Banner and Messenger. 
The first and last names were entirely too long. The 
Congregationalists in San Francisco were issuing a 
paper bearing the name. The Pacific; for that reason 
that name was laid aside. The Pacific Methodist was 
next considered. It was suggested that an aggressive 
Methodist, or a zealous Methodist, or a shouting 
Methodist would be in order; but scarcely a Methodist 
of pacific characteristics. 

The California Christian Advocate was already 
under full movement, with Rev. S. D. Simonds as 



456 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

editor, and to have an Oregon Christian Advocate 
would make it too local. The Oregon Banner, and 
the Oregon Banner and Messenger were soon dis- 
missed. The name Oregon Christian Advocate was 
again considered. Rev. Alvin F. Waller, as I now 
recollect, suggested the name, Pacific Christian Advo- 
cate. It at once struck all with favor, and it was 
unanimously adopted. I am glad to credit this sug- 
gestion to that grand and true man, Rev. Mr. Waller. 
He left the impress of his strong personality upon 
Oregon as perhaps few others have done. Subsequent 
events have fully vindicated the wisdom of the selec- 
tion. It preserves the family patronymic. Christian 
Advocate. The word Pacific sufficiently locates the 
patronizing territory of its circulation. If the name 
Oregon Christian Advocate had been selected, when 
Washington and Idaho became contiguous Terri- 
tories, now States, the name would have been ofifens- 
ively exclusive. 

It was no small undertaking to publish such a 
paper in Salem — a hamlet, then, of perhaps six hun- 
dred souls. A semi-monthly steamer brought us all 
the news from the outside world. We had to depend 
upon home talent and upon indomitable energy and 
industry to make a current, readable paper. I had 
heard of Bishop Morris's first editorship of the West- 
ern Christian Advocate, when he was compelled to 
write his own correspondence and communications 
from imaginary places and with fictitious signatures, 
and also write his own editorial matter as well. I 
copied his example, doing a larger share of such work. 

There was a remarkable improvement in the facili- 
ties Portland afforded for news, and other matter for 
our columns. There was also in Portland, a larger 
and better class of advertisers. I found it much easier 
to make a paper in Portland than I did in Salem. 



MF SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 457 

But even under the more favorable conditions in 
Portland, it was at the same time, drudgery and severe 
toil, successfully to conduct the Pacific Christian Ad- 
vocate. Probably few, if any editors of our Church 
papers ever had a berth so hard, or so poorly com- 
pensated as was ours in the earlier years of my edi- 
torial life. I had no assistants, because there was 
nothing from which to pay them; no clerks, no book- 
keeper, no typewriter; scarcely an errand-boy. I did 
all the editing of the paper, wrote all the editorial 
matter, conducted all the business correspondence, 
kept all the accounts, hired and paid all the hands, 
mailed all the papers, and, with my own hands, di- 
rected all the papers, fifteen hundred in number. 
When all this is considered, as I look back over it, 
it seems simply to have been impossible that I could 
accomplish so many things with anything like pass- 
able efficiency or correctness. But still more signifi- 
cant, and well-nigh incredible, is it, that for the first 
few years the compensation was so small. My salary, 
in the beginning, was only seven hundred dollars a 
year. For this very inconsiderable compensation I 
did work fairly worth two thousand dollars a year. 
Afterwards, it was increased to one thousand dollars 
a year, and a mailing clerk was allowed me. It was a 
very hard struggle to keep the concern afloat, and 
avoid running it into hopeless insolvency. I borrowed 
and advanced money until, at one time, the Advocate 
owed me four thousand dollars. 

I give two incidents of my editorial life in Port- 
land. In the first, the editor was hoaxed. A young 
man came over to me fri^ Puget Sound, to be bap- 
tized by me, as the minister in his circuit was unor- 
dained, and could not baptize him. He was a bright 
lad, and apparently sincere. Pie came to me well rec- 
ommended. I baptized him. He went into the Ump- 



458 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

qua Valley, in Southern Oregon, to attend school. 
A few weeks later I received a letter from a gentleman 
I knew there, a class-leader, stating that this lad in 
felling a tree had been suddenly killed by the tree 
falling upon him. The letter stated the sincere and 
earnest grief of the people over the young man's un- 
timely and shocking death. The letter requested that 
the name should not appear. I published the incident, 
withholding the name, as requested. After the paper 
containing the alleged incident reached the Umpqua 
Valley, the class-leader informed me that I was the 
victim of a cruel hoax, as no such event had occurred 
there. Sending back the copy of the letter I had pub- 
lished, to this class-leader, I found that my young neo- 
phyte had practiced this deception and forged the 
name of the class-leader to the untrue story. His ob- 
ject was notoriety. He gained it. 

In the other incident, I fooled a bucking horse. 
He jumped stiff-legged and tried to unhorse me. My 
hat went one way and my spectacles another. I 
spurred him, and rode bareheaded around the square 
to the no small diversion of gaping crowds. Then re- 
turning to the stable, my hat and spectacles were re- 
covered, and I made the trip undertaken. 

Everything occurring in those long-gone days is 
as fresh and vivid as though but of yesterday. How I 
recall the forms and characters of the living actors 
contemporary with me in la3dng the foundations of 
many generations in Oregon, — the venerable David 
Leslie, the patriarch of them all; Waller, the typ- 
ical itinerant; C. S. Kingsley, the versatile teacher, 
preacher, business man; G^stavus, Harvey K., and 
Joseph Hines, who have made their imperishable im- 
press upon that land and its dwellers; the suave, dig- 
nified, elegant, and eloquent William Roberts; Nehe- 
miah Doane, L. T. Woodward; the saintly man whom 



Mr SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON, 



459 



everytiodj loved, James H. Wilbur; Clinton and Al- 
bert Kelly; Francis S. Hoyt, ten years president of 
Willamette University; J. L. Parrish, C. O. Hosford, 
William Helm, Isaac Dillon, John F. De Vore, John 
W. Miller, John Flynn, John Spencer, the Royals of 
three generations. Glorious men! Most of them have 
already ascended to their crowning. Erelong their 
few survivors will rejoin them. 

Portland is now a city of seventy thousand. When 
I first saw it, it was a hamlet of perhaps five or six 
hundred people, in the midst of a dense fir forest. 
For years the only streets practicable for drays, on 
account of stumps of trees, were First and Second 
Streets, running parallel with the river. Portland 
Academy stood in the midst of timber. I assisted Rev. 
James H. Wilbur in felling stately fir-trees by boring 
into them transversely, and firing the intersecting 
apertures. The trees were so resinous, that those fires 
so kindled would burn the trunk through, and fell 
the tree as surely as the woodman's ax could. 

X. 

Many changes have come to Methodism in the 
last fifty years. Some of them were important, and 
some comparatively unimportant. I note a fe\v: 

The preaching of the earlier period was of the 
law and its demands, rather than of the gospel. Th^ 
guilt and danger of sinners were earnestly enforced. 
After this, usually in the same sermon, but not always, 
the remedy was offered. The sermons and exhorta- 
tions were ''not with enticing words of man's wisdom;' 
but with plain, convincing, direct speech, and "in the 
demonstration of the Spirit." They were largely doc- 
trinal and controversial. They were distinctively Ar- 
minian. In later years, they are more didactic and 
ethical. As a rule, the sermons of the earlier times 



460 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



were long. The hearers seemed to expect them to 
be somewhat long. Their length was rarely criti- 
cised, unless they extended considerably beyond the 
usual regulation hour. The hymns were read, and 
then lined. The prayers were long. 

Before my ministry began, and for a few years 
thereafter, it was not unusual for some matronly and 
gifted woman to follow the sermon with a rousing 
exhortation. This fact occasioned but little surprise, 
as the practice, if an innovation, would have caused; 
hence I conclude the usage may have had long and 
general precedent. Some of these exhortations by fe- 
males produced a profound and overwhelming im- 
pression. One I recall was at a quarterly-meeting. 
After an effective, forceful sermon by Rev. Charles 
Giles, the presiding elder, the Widow Blair, his sister, 
asked leave to offer a few words. Her addition was 
timely and able. On another occasion, during a re- 
vival in Paris, N. Y., a lady arose, on the close of my 
father's sermon, and made an earnest exhortation to 
the people to come to Christ. Many came forward 
and were converted, and the revival received a power- 
ful impetus. 

In those earlier days there were some men of 
marked power; yet the rank and file of the early 
Methodist preachers were not men of eminent genius 
nor of brilliant abilities. While some of them were 
scholarly and learned, the most of them were com- 
paratively unlearned. The Rev. George Gary, of 
whom I have already spoken, was almost entirely un- 
learned when, in his boyhood, his ministry began. 
He learned grammar on horseback as he rode his 
earlier circuits, yet no skilled grammarian could con- 
struct sentences more correctly than he. 

The Arniinian doctrines of free-will, universal 
atonement, and free grace, equally for all men, ap- 



MV SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON, 46 1 

pealed to the average American mind as more equi- 
table and equal than the limited atonement and the 
sovereign decrees of Calvinism. In these stirring 
times of higher criticism and dissent and doctrinal re- 
vision, it is a gratifying fact, and one full of the most 
encouraging promise, that there has never been any 
considerable deviation from sound doctrine among the 
millions of Methodists in the last hundred and fifty 
years. Now and then a man like Priestley, or Thomas 
Paine, or Robert CoUyer, or H. W. Thomas has de- 
scribed a theological tangent or turned away from 
Scriptural teachings about Jesus as the Divine Re- 
deemer; but such sporadic deviations have never 
touched the heart of the Church, which has been as 
true to sound doctrine as the needle to the pole and 
the flower to the sun. 

A stronger body of Methodist preachers fills the 
pulpits of Methodism to-day than those of any former 
period of which I have had knowledge. I believe 
them equally as consecrated and spiritual as the fathers 
were, with less of the frontiersman in garb and speech, 
and with more of refinement and culture and intelli- 
gence. , They are systematic, learned, and successful. 
The change from the circuit system to that of stations 
has come within the last half-century. It has greatly 
modified the character and form of our ministerial 
training. The circuit plan was the school in which 
the younger preachers were trained under the eye and 
hand of the senior colleague, and also while trainer 
and trained were both in the work. The advantage 
of this plan, in our early stage of evolution, was un- 
doubtedly great. When the circuit system ceased, 
theological schools became a necessity. Their eminent 
usefulness can not be questioned. Our itinerant sys- 
tem requires annually, say, eight hundred recruits of 
ministers, and but for the theological schools, we 



462 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK, 

would he unable to keep the ranks full by accessions 
of trained men for our work. With the introduction of 
the railway, travel by buggy and on horseback ceased. 
Thus the time-honored hospitality of the Methodist 
home to the travel-worn itinerant was no longer 
needed nor practicable. In large measure the im- 
proving, molding influence of the ministerial guest 
upon the children was wanting. 

From the period of the meeting-house, and the 
chapel, as then called, humble and rude, and severely 
plain and cheap, we have passed quite over into that 
of costly, elegant, beautiful churches, challenging the 
admiration of all persons of refined taste. In these 
magnificent churches as devout and earnest Chris- 
tians worship God as ever their rude forefathers were, 
and as effective workers and planners, and as liberal 
givers for Christ as ever bore the honored name of 
Methodist. 

Lay delegation has come within the last twenty 
years. I always favored it. One of the circular reso- 
lutions on that subject, which went the round of the 
Conferences, and which received many votes, was the 
Oregon resolution, introduced by me into the Oregon 
Conference in 1859. Lay delegation works well. Per 
haps two houses will give more equality or parity of 
the orders. 

One of the most marked changes has come in the 
economy of forces, by the systematic, organized, con- 
nectional movements of these times. These mark 
the transition and contrasts from the irregular to the 
ordered, from the partial to the general, from the oc- 
casional to the constant, steady giving and doing; 
from the solicitation and contribution and adminis- 
tration of the few, for great and good objects, to regu- 
lar, organized, systematic giving and doing for Christ 
on a large scale, with the breadth of a continent for 



MV SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 



its field. Take, for* example, the Church Extension 
Board, which in twenty-five years has received and 
disbursed $4,000,000, aided in the erection of 7,500 
churches, and which has $1,500,000 of active capital 
as a loan fund to perpetuate its mission of blessing. 
The value of the churches aided is $99,500,000, a gain 
of 12,000 churches aided, and of net valu^ of churches, 
$75,000,000. 

This is only a sample of Christian giving and doing 
in one line. There ar: many. We raised las year, for 
missions i lone, Home and Foreign, in our three Con- 
nectional Missionary Societies, over $1,500,000; Board 
of Church Extension, $300,000; Freedmen's Aid and 
vSouthern Education Society, $322,632 — increase of re- 
ceipts over the former year, $55,000; Conference 
Claimants, $217,000, — in all, $2,339,632, in one year, 
for Christ's kingdom, where, twenty years ago, the 
offerings were less than one-quarter as much, and fifty 
years ago they were, all told, for one year, $140,000, 
or just one-seventeenth as much. The sum given by 
Methodists fifty years ago, for all purposes, made an 
average per member, for that year, of fifteen cents. 
The amounts raised for benevolences last year, per 
member, are more than $1.25, an increase of 1,100 
per cent. 

Since its organization, seventy-two years ago,' the 
Missionary Society has laid upon the altar of Chris- 
tian missions an average of $347,222 a year, and an 
aggregate of twenty-five millions. 

Let us contrast this connectional form of benefi- 
cence, as to Church Extension, with the usage which 
preceded it. In a village in Chenango County, New 
York, a Methodist church was much needed; but the 
society there was unable to build it, and so was the 
circuit. A wealthy layman, after liberally contribut- 
ing to the enterprise, entered his buggy, and rode over 



464 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



a radius of one hundred miles/« privately soliciting 
funds to complete the erection of the church. He was 
out two months in this service, and so gathered some 
$250 or $300. 

One church, of which I had personal knowledge, 
actually carried a debt of $250 for years, to be able 
- to turn away all private solicitors for aid to build 
churches. I do not doubt they saved themselves the 
giving of thousands by this device. Reference has 
been made to the smallness of our Book Concerns. 
In 1836 the New York house burned down. The 
Church contributed $90,000 to restore it. In that con- 
tribution every member of my father's family partici- 
pated. The capital has grown to $2,500,000. For 
purposes outside of its regular business, the Concern 
has paid out more than its working capital. For the 
quadrennium closing in 1848, the sales were $612,- 
625.19, slightly less than $1 a member. For the quad- 
rennium closing in 1888, the sales were $6,920,743.17, 
or over $3 a member. 

According to Dr. Dorchester, the entire value of 
the religious literature published in the United States 
by the different denominations was estimated at $140,- 
000,000, of which the Methodist Episcopal Church 
has issued $50,000,000, or over one-third of the whole, 
and 'more than half of this amount in the last sixteen 
years. 

In the modes of conducting Annual Conference 
business there has been m.arked improvement. The 
scope and accuracy of all Conference statistics have 
been subserved by the changes. Much time has been 
saved in one particular line of Conference Proceed- 
ings. I refer to the passage of character. When the 
name of a member of Conference was called, and the 
question was asked, "Is there anything against him?'' 



MV SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 465 

he retired from the Conference-room, while, in his 
absence, the presiding elder represented him and his 
year's work, sometimes with words of criticism, some- 
times with words of eulogy, or both, taking for this 
considerable time. All this has given place to the 
present more suitable, and equally thorough and ef- 
fective mode. 

Equal improvement is noted as to the mode of 
conducting General Conference business. In the first 
of which I was a member, in 1856, the appeal cases 
were heard and decided by the whole body of the dele- 
gates, taking for the decision of three or four appeals 
several days. In the General Conference of 1820 two 
cases of appeal for the location of preachers took parts 
of nine days, and tvv^o cases of appeal for maladminis- 
tration occupied parts of nine days. 

In 1864 a Court of Appeals was held during the 
General Conference, over which one of the bishops 
presided. This was followed by the present arrange- 
ment of triers of appeals in General Conference Dis- 
tricts. 

There has been a growing tendency in the wealthier 
charges, for the laymen to make choice of their pas- 
tors, instead of, as in the earlier stage of our history, 
leaving the matter in the hands of the bishop. 

Unless all charges should alike be practically al- 
lowed to designate their pastors, and all ministers to 
select their charges, the usage is a usurpation of dan- 
gerous possibilities. 

Love-feast tickets have been used and disused in 
my time. Band-meetings, within my recollection, have 
passed into innocuous desuetude. 

As a rule, the Sunday-noon class was always held 
by the officiating preacher when present. I usually 
led the class after preaching, sometimes, when really 
30 



466 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



I should have been resting and recovering from the 
exhaustion induced by the preaching-service. This 
custom was retained only on circuits and very small 
stations. 

XI. 

From this review of changes we turn to the present, 
with its improved adjustments and methods, and with 
its more systematic and easy working, and its multi- 
plied facilities for doing for Christ. 

Our progress in Christian achievements should 
keep pace with our increased facilities. 

In the earlier times we rode to our circuits and 
around them on horseback. In the same way we rode 
to the Annual and General Conferences, four miles 
an hour. V/e do these things now by train, thirty 
miles an hour. By electric power we shall yet travel 
to Conference, and over presiding elder districts, one 
hundred miles an hour. We sail the seas twenty miles 
an hour. In the near future we may fly through space 
one hundred and fifty miles an hour. 

Pessimistic views of the present are wrong. The 
past was not better. It was not so good. Badness 
kills itself. It is short-lived. Goodness has inherent 
and persistent vitality. The stability of a bad cause 
is only apparent. Slavery thirty years ago seemed a 
solid institution. It was imbedded in the Constitu- 
tion, intrenched in commerce and in the social habits, 
industries, and conditions of the people. It even flour- 
ished; and it boasted defenders from the Bible. But 
how quickly God withered it in the hot flames of the 
war which its injustice and greed had kindled! It 
would be as impossible to revivify it as to reanimate 
the mummy of old Pharaoh. 

Within my memory, dueling existed in this coun- 
try, almost unchallenged. The breath of an enlight- 
ened public opinion smote dueling as unmanly and nn- 



MV SEMI-CENTENNIAL SERMON. 467 

christian; and although hoary with age, it died, and 
there are none so poor to do it reverence. 

Never since Jesus hung in bitter agony on Cal- 
vary have the forces of truth been so potent, active, 
and aggressive as at this moment. Of these forces 
none are wider in their sweep nor grander in their 
triumph than this Church of our fathers and of us, 
their sons, planted in this land by our founder, John 
Wesley, one hundred and seven years ago. 

During 1890, eight million copies of the Holy 
Scriptures have been issued and circulated by the 
British and Foreign Bible Society and the American 
Bible Society — from each in equal numbers. A 
greiater number, this, than had been issued in the first 
eighteen centuries of the Christian em. 

Five thousand heathen converts in one of our India 
Conferences in one year, and in all our foreign mis- 
sions eleven thousand, are reported in the year 1890. 
Our total annual increase of members the last year, 
including deaths, is 108,696; and not including the 
deaths, the net increase is 80,352. That means an 
average of nearly three hundred accessions every day 
in the year. 

XII. 

Let us cast the horoscope for a hundred years, 
and see what it reveals. At the rate of increase in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church since Mr. Wesley 
died — a hundred years ago — we shall have, in 1991, 
of traveling ministers, 3,187,000; of members, 1,102,- 
867,000; of churches, 25,216,849, a seating capacity 
of fifteen billions. Imagination staggers before these 
stupendous figures. We must use hyperbole to ap- 
proximate the expression of the glory God will put 
upon us. 

Isaiah's metaphors, in his sixtieth chapter, assist 
our words faintly to foretell the sweep of the gigantic 



468 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

extension of God's kingdom in the earth. Gentiles 
and kings shall come to her light and to the grandeur 
of her ascension. Her sons shall come from far. The 
abundance of the sea shall be given her. Even the 
abundance of the desert shall be hers, brought to her 
altars by the camels and dromedaries, the ships of the 
desert. The forces of the Gentiles shall come as clouds 
and as doves. The queens of Sheba and Seba shall 
bring gifts. Yea, all nations shall serve her. The 
gates shall not be shut night nor day. "For brass God 
will bring gold, for iron silver, and for wood stones, 
and for stones iron." "A little one shall become a 
thousand, and a small one a strong city." It is com- 
ing, brethren. God shall bring it to pass in his own 
time. Hallelujah! Let the Lord be magnified! 

1. I am glad and thankful that my life has been 
spent from childhood in God's service in the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. In my early boyhood I en- 
listed under the banners of Christ. As the lengthen- 
ing shadows creep on, there, to the last, my feet shall 
stand. 

2. I wish to say to the young men of the Confer- 
ence, your possibilities for earth and heaven in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church are better and grander 
than in any other. 

3. The system of ]\Iethodism does not need mend- 
ing, but working. It is impossible to modify it essen- 
tially without destroying it. It should be loyally 
worked for all there is in it. "Whereunto we have al- 
ready attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us 
mind the same thing." 

In 1893 I was appointed presiding elder of the 
Hillsboro District, which I have served continu- 
ously ever since, and am now closing my lifth 
year of that work. 



HILLSBORO COLLEGE, 



469 



In October, 1896, our church in Blanchester 
was burned. The fire in which it perished was a 
very sweeping and destructive one. Compara- 
tively, as to populations and the wealth of the two 
places, it was more destructive than the famous 
Chicago fire of a few years since, which attracted 
the sympathy of the whole world, and elicited con- 
tributions from very many cities of our own and 
foreign countries. This Church, with a few hun- 
dred dollars' assistance from other charges, was 
rebuilt by a finer and more commodious edifice. 

HILLSBORO COLLEGE. 

It is worth while to consider a brief sketch of 
the history of this noble institution, Hillsboro Col- 
lege. The following address was delivered by me 
at the reopening of the cohege, January 19, 1896: 

This is a memorable occasion. It is a day of retro- 
spect, reaching backward almost seventy years. It 
is also a day of prospect. Bright with the resplendent 
achievements of its past, the future beckons us on- 
ward by its large promise of intellectual and moral 
development; the waving harvest of sixty years of 
sowing. Hillsboro has long been honored as the seat 
of hig^her educational institutions. 

Threescore and eight years ago, Rev. Joseph Mc- 
Dowell Mathews, D. D., began his illustrious career 
in this city as an educator of females. For early his- 
torical facts on this subject, I am indebted to Hon. 
James H. Thompson, as I find them . in his history of 
Highland County. In 1829 the Hillsboro Academy 
was organized. Governor Allen Trimble was the first 
president of its Board of Trustees, in which relation he 



470 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT JFORIv. 



continued for twenty-five years. His successors were 
General Joseph J. McDowell and Samuel E. Hibben, 
Esq. In this academy Dr. Mathews taught from 1827 
to 1836. In 1839, Oakland Female Seminary was es- 
tablished by Dr. Mathews, at the east end of Main 
Street, between the Chillicothe and Marshall Pikes. 
Here for eighteen years he taught. During this time 
one hundred graduates were catalogued, "who," as 
Judge Thompson attests in his history, "are the 
mothers and grandmothers of a posterity, which, in 
every part of our grand country, from the front line of 
human progress, have justly distinguished themselves." 
Many of them were then in middle life and in old age, 
as they had been, with established characters from 
girlhood the zealous advocates and brave guardians 
of a very high, pure, and undefiled type of woman- 
hood, wdiich fixes, defines, and gilds the true outline 
of all chaste society. Judge Thompson pays a high 
tribute to two historic teachers: "From 1845 to 1851, 
Professor Isaac Eewis taught a school in every grade 
of mathematical, classical, and English learning." 

Of Dr. Mathews, Judge Thompson adds, that "he 
has for forty-five years been engaged in founding Oak- 
land Female Seminary, and in teaching females. Dr. 
Mathews established the first female school in Ohio, 
in which a thorough collegiate education was given to 
girls." Some of Dr. Mathews's graduates were among 
the leading matrons of the past generation. I cite a 
notable example: the widow of the late Alajor W. D. 
Bickham, of Dayton, Ohio. She was one of the lead- 
ing projectors and managers of the Woman's Christian 
Association of Dayton. She still holds an important 
place in its management. Her vigorous and able 
administration has contributed to make it a model 
institution of its kind, — a name and a praise in all the 
land. 



1 



JOSEPH M'D, MATHEWS. 



To the wise and faithful work of Dr. Mathews is 
due the elevated and noble character of the women 
of Highland County for the last half-century — the 
mothers and grandmothers of the former and present 
generations of the people of this section. These 
worthy matrons of his training have impressed their 
strong personality upon this community, and have 
made it, for brains, vigor, and enterprise, second to 
none. 

In 1857 the Hillsboro Female College took the 
place of the Oakland Female Seminary. For three 
years he was its first president. He was succeeded by 
Rev. W. G. W. Lewis, Rev. Henry Turner, Rev. 
Allen T. Thompson, Rev, D. Copeland, then Dr. 
Mathews, a second term of five years; Rev. John F. 
Loyd, D. D., Rev. W. C. Heh, and Mr. Gall. 

In 1877, as pastor of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in Hillsboro, I visited Dr. Mathews, who was 
then aged and in precarious health. Two years later 
he died in your midst, full of years and honors. I re- 
call two beautiful incidents. On my first visit, in reply 
to my inquiry as to his condition, he recited to me, 
with feeble voice, Charles Wesley's well-known hymn, 
dictated on his death-bed when he was over fourscore 
years of age: 

"In age and feebleness extreme, 
Who shall a helpless worm redeem ? 
Jesus, my only hope thou art, 
Strength of my failing flesh and heart; 
O could I catch a smile from thee. 
Then drop'into eternity!" , 

On my last visit, some six or eight months before 
his death, in answer to my inquiries, he whispered: 
'T am waiting on this side Jordan until my Joshua 
shall come and divide the waters, and lead mc through, 
dry-shod." A beautiful ending of a lovely life. 



472 SIXTV-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



Forty-one years ago, out of the Oakland Female 
Seminary grew the Hillsboro Female College, which 
a few years ago was made a mixed institution for per- 
sons of both sexes. Later still, came Miss Emily 
Grand-Girard's Female Seminary. Hillsboro College 
cost fifty thousand dollars. The fathers of the former 
generation deserve great credit for their self-sacrihcing 
and tireless efforts to create and sustain this edifice, 
which we are met this day formally to reopen with 
fitting services, thus dedicating it to its great work of 
higher education among the young men and women 
of this community. The graduates from this college 
alone number one hundred and fifty. May i8, 1894, it 
was consumed by fire. May w^e not hope that, like 
the fabled phoenix, this large and elegant structure, 
improved in style and finish beyond its predecessor, 
. shall yet be successful in a more extended sphere than 
its predecessor, and in grander and better work? 
When the flames on that May-day sent up in smoke 
and cinders the cojj^bustible parts of this dear old 
college, they left standing the strong, non-combustible 
walls; and, what was incomparably better still, its 
friends and patrons have rebuilt it in better form. In 
doing this they have displayed an energy of purpose 
and of spirit, which are an assuring prophecy of its 
success and continuous benefactions. 

Rev. Dr. Bashford (President of Ohio Wesleyan 
University) : On behalf of the trustees of the Hillsboro 
College, I present you this building for appropriate 
dedicatory services. 

Dr. Bashford delivered an eloquent address, and 
then formally dedicated the building in an appro- 
priate prayer. 

Hillsboro Charge is now a very strong Church. 
Rev. ]\Iarion I.eSourd is pastor. I have resided 



HILLSBORO CHURCH. 



473 



here for the last five years. I recently held a quar- 
terly-meeting in Hiilsboro. It has over seven hun- 
dred members. The sacramental service was very 
largely attended. I have never seen so many com- 
municants participate at one service in this church, 
as at this meeting. Probably not less than four 
hundred received the holy sacrament. The love- 
feast in the afternoon was almost as largely at- 
tended. It was a most spiritual and powerful serv- 
ice. The following article appeared in the Nevus- 
Herald the next day : 

During the sacramental service in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church last Sunday, Dr. Pearne announced 
some historic facts, as follows: 

''This Church was organized in 1805, ninety-three 
years ago. For ninety-three years our fathers and 
mothers have sent up prayers to the Lord, and h^-ve 
received showers of blessings in response. Here souls 
for more than ninety years have come to the mercy- 
seat, and have found healing and adoption and life. 
During the last twenty-five years this Church has 
raised $10,764 for missions, and for general Church 
purposes $91,761, including the money given for 
building and improving the church and parsonage. 
During the same time, in the last twenty-five years, 
the Sunday-school has given $3,216 for missions, and 
$2,970 for current Sunday-school expenses; in all, 
$6,186. 

''Eighty-eight ministers and twenty-nine presiding 
elders have served this Church. Brother M. LcSourd 
is the eighty-eighth pastor who has officiated in this 
Church, and I am the twenty-ninth of the presiding 
elders who have served this people. This Church has 
sent out two missionaries, Miss Eoyd and Miss Ayres, 



474 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



to Mexico. It has sent out an Official Board Blank 
Record Book, which one of your earnest, working- 
men, L. Detwiler, has prepared, and it is now in nearly 
two thousand Methodist charges, and it will doubtless 
be so used as long as Methodism shall continue as a 
Church. The first preacher in charge in this station, 
nearly sixty years ago, was Randolph S. Foster, for 
the last twenty-seven years one of her honored bishops, 
and one of the grandest and noblest of veterans." 

A REMARKABLE BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY. 

In September, 1894, Rev. R. S. Rust, D. D., 
LIv. D., celebrated the eightieth anniversary of his 
birthday, at his residence on West Fourth Street, 
Cincinnati. His friends, in large numbers, crowded 
his home on the evening of that day. A friend, in 
Delaw^are, Ohio, Mrs. Professor L. D. McCabe, 
sent eighty beautiful wdiite roses, a most fittmg and 
elegant offering. Speeches and music and prayer 
enlivened and graced the occasion. The writer of 
this volume, who had been for nearly thirty years 
a devoted friend and admirer of the noble hero 
w^hose Hfe had been full of great and blessed service 
for the Master, was present, and, being called on, 
he offered the foUowdng remarks : 

I am both honored and delighted to be present on 
this joyous occasion, and to share with you in these 
most appropriate festivities. As representing the 
Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society, with 
which our venerable friend has been so long and ef- 
fectively associated, I am to contribute some brief and 
befitting statements. 

In traveling in different countries, certain marked 



DR. rust's birthday ANNIVERSARY. 475 



features of the landscape have greatly impressed me 
with their beauty. Repeated observation of these rare 
but fascinating objects has only augmented their 
weird spell over my imagination. Two examples are 
cited for illustration: Thirty years ago I traversed the 
defile in the mountains of Jamaica, called the bog- 
walk, through which flows the Rio Cpbra. For eigh- 
teen or twenty miles the Cobra meanders through a 
carlon — mountain cleft from summit to base three 
thousand feet. Between these towering walls, which 
seem almost to touch each other, in tortuous windings 
the bold stream pursues its serpentine way, disclosing 
with every bend of the cafion new forms of beauty. 
Through this remarkable defile I have often traveled, 
and always with deepened interest. Fifty-three years 
ago I first saw Niagara. The majestic crescent, a mile 
in circuit, over the brink of whose awful depth the 
waters are foaming and rolling and thundering in a 
ceaseless downpour, produced an overwhelming ef- 
fect. I wanted to be silent. I found myself quoting 
the poet's invocation: 

Come, then, expressive silence, muse his praise.'* 

Eternity seemed very near. God was revealed in his 
stupendous works. Many times since I have revisited 
the mighty waterfall. That gorgeous display of Divine 
power has always deeply impressed me. 

When I recently visited Niagara, a singular marvel 
had been wrought. The great cataract was still there: 
its sublime features all unchanged. The human engi- 
neer had chiseled in the rocks which shore the floods 
an unseen chamber, through which a small part of the 
unused water is diverted and made to fall upon tur- 
bine wheels, so generating electricity. This electricity 
Is transmitted over an area of three hundred sciuare 
miles to flood the populous State of New York with 



476 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



millions of incandescent lights, and to make that vast 
area vibrant with the whirr and buzz of countless 
spindles and shuttles, and with hundreds of forges. 
And all this without at all diminishing the magnificent 
glory of Niagara. Human genius had utilized God's 
hidden power. 

In this social gathering these material illustrations 
are suggestive. They furnish most fitting analogies. 
The earthquakes might have cleaved the mountain 
to its base, so making a way for the stream and a road 
for the wayfarer along the picturesque river. For two 
centuries and a half the mormtain of slavery had been 
growing in this country. God smote it with the terri- 
ble thunders of war. In the words of Liberty and 
Union, the battle-cry of freedom was sung: 

" I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel, 
As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall 
deal; 

Let the hero born of woman, crush the serpent with his 
heel; 

Our God is marching on. 

I have seen him in the watchfires of a hundred circling 
camps; 

They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and 
damps ; 

I have read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring 
lamps ; 

His day is marching on. 

In the heauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea. 
With a glory in his bosom, which transfigures you and me, 
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, 
While God is marching on. 

In this case the mountain has become a plain. Slavery 
has gone down forever. God's own hand buried it in 
the red gulf of battle. 

While the immeasurable power of Niagara has 



DR. rust's birthday ANNIVERSARY. 477 



been tapped by man's device, so transmitting force to 
be wielded for human uses and needs, so when the 
mountain of slavery disappeared, God opened in the 
desert streams of healing and relief for his long-op- 
pressed children. There flowed forth from millions of 
loyal Christian men and women, first through the 
channels of the Freedmen's Bureau, and later by the 
Freedmen's Aid Society, tides of blessing for God's 
poor; refreshing streams of beneficence in rich abun- 
dance. Never has Christian devotion yielded larger 
nor more prolific results for human uplifting and en- 
richment. 

Eighty years ago to-day God sent into this world, 
in Massachusetts, one of the chief New England 
States, a man-child, who contained within himself pos- 
sibilities as actual as, and relatively far more signifi- 
cant than, the giant oak in the tiny acorn, the Rio 
Cobra in the Jamaica mountains, and the grand Ni- 
agara in the scanty streamlets of Canadian forests. 
The name given to this newcomer was Richard Sutton 
Rust. His early years were spent in conditions admi- 
rably befitting him for the important place he was so 
soon and so nobly to fill. He was made of martyr 
stuff. In his early manhood he championed the then 
unpopular cause of the slave. He "fought with beasts 
at Ephesus," where he was mobbed for his Abolition- 
ism; and when he was pleading and working for the 
freedom of his Brother in Black — ''God's image 
carved in ebony" — he was still further prepared for', 
his great life-work by his direction, for three years, of 
the educational forces of New Hampshire, as Commis- 
sioner of the Public Schools of that State. 

Then he came West for a broader theater of action. 
For some years he was president of the Cincinnati 
Wesleyan Female College. His first grand achieve- 
ment in his new field and in his chosen line was in 



47 8 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



planting and directing VVilberforce University for peo- 
ple of color. It still stands, a growing monument of 
his wise philanthropic zeal. Later he became corre- 
sponding secretary of the Freedmen's Aid Society, 
which, with steadily increasing efficiency, he admin- 
istered for twenty-two years. The conditions were 
peculiar. The mountain of slavery had become the 
wide plain of freedom for five millions of freedmen 
then — seven and a half millions now — who for two 
centuries and a half had been held and accounted as 
goods and chattels personal. Just as Niagara's hid- 
den forces were developed by human skill and genius 
into myriad forms of activity and light, so this Freed- 
men's Aid and Southern Education Society, so ably 
wielded by our venerable brother. Rev. Dr. Rust, has 
filled eleven States in the Black Belt with its incalcu- 
lable benefactions, alike to whites and blacks. He 
will never be dissociated from the colossal beneficence 
which he assisted to create and so beneficently admin- 
istered. That service, in the thought and sympathies 
of millions of the Freedmen and their descendants, has 
forever linked him inseparably with our martyr Presi- 
dent, Abraham Lincoln. Fourteen years ago the di- 
rection of the Society, whose infancy he had nursed 
and developed to stalwart maturity, passing into other 
hands, Dr. Rust was elected by the General Confer 
ence honorary corresponding secretary of this God- 
honoring and God-honored philanthropy. 

As the child of destiny 'and man of mark, he is still 
living at the ripe age of fourscore years, far beyond 
the ordinary term of human life, to behold in his ad- 
vancing years the ever-widening circles of beneficence 
which he set in motion, filling earth and heaven with 
abundant ripe and golden fruit. For thirty years I 
have been in touch with him. For a score and a half of 



1 



METHODISM ORGANIZED IN OHIO. 479 



years I have known and loved and honored him, and 
my own Hfe has been the nobler and better for the 
association. 

The cradle is the prophecy of the bridal altar, and 
that foretypes the cerements of the casket and the 
grave. But the monuments he has reared in his long 
life will endure throughout the history of time and 
the endless cycles of eternity. A higher crowning 
awaits him, which I expect to witness, amid the splen- 
dors of eternity, when God shall place upon his im- 
mortal brow the unfading coronal of righteousness, 
so recognizing and rewarding the triumphs of Chris- 
tian philanthropy, in augmenting which our distin- 
guished friend bore so eminent and illustrious a part. 

Methodism was first organized in Ohio by John 
Kobler in 1798. The Methodists of the State 
having determined, by a concerted action of the 
several Annual Conferences, to celebrate the cen- 
tennial of its introduction, a committee of one from 
each Conference was appointed to make the neces- 
sary arrangements. They were authorized to ap- 
point the place, devise the program, invite the 
speakers, attend to transportation and entertain- 
ment, and look after the comfort of their guests. 
The committee fixed upon Delaware as the place, 
and Commencement-week of the Ohio Wesleyan 
University as the most suitable time. The exer- 
cises began on Tuesday, June 21st, and continued 
till Friday, June 24, 1898. 

Having been recjuested by the committee to 
prepare for that occasion a paper on "The 
Gospel on Horseback," I delivered the following 



480 SIXTV-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

address to a large audience assembled in Gray 
Chapel: 

THE GOSPBIv ON HORSEBACK. 

The theme assigned me for a brief essay is entitled, 
''The Gospel on Horseback." With permission, I 
would like to change it thus: "The Methodist Itinerant 
on Horseback." Except as the early Methodist 
preachers carried in their saddlebags the Bible, the 
hymn-book, the Discipline, and Christian literature 
for distribution, the gospel can scarcely be said to be 
on horseback. In Methodist terminology the word 
itinerant describes neither the fact nor the mode of 
traveling. In our usage the word itinerant means a 
pastor who often changes his pastorate, in contradis- 
tinction from one who holds a settled or permanent 
pastorate, and who therefore does not change at all. 
A Methodist itinerant who rides on horseback is dif- 
ferentiated from a stationed minister, who does not 
travel, because his position does not admit of his trav- 
eling. And yet, in Methodist parlance, the one is as 
really an itinerant as the other. 

The intent of my assigned theme, as I construe it, 
is to describe the early Methodist preachers who 
reached their appointments by horse, or who thus 
rode their circuits. I was probably programmed for 
this subject, because from my long ministerial life I 
was supposed to be personally, and from observation, 
familiar with this subject; and such is, indeed, the fact. 
Sixty-one years ago I rode on horseback, each Satur- 
day, from Cazenovia Seminary, twenty miles away, 
to Onondaga Circuit, as a supply. I continued to 
travel that circuit by horse nearly two years. My cir- 
cuit lay from four to ten miles south from Syracuse, 
N. Y. For eight or ten years this was my mode of 
travel. Fourteen years later, when sent as a mission- 



THE GOSPEL ON HORSEBACK. 



481 



ary to Oregon, both myself and all my Conference 
associates traveled by horse. For this mode of travel 
there is ample precedent. Pharaoh's military, who 
pursued Israel to the Red Sea to recapture and re- 
enslave them, and who met their awful fate by drown- 
ing, included horsemen. Miriam's song of victory 
celebrated this event. "The Lord hath triumphed 
gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he thrown 
into the sea." Sennacherib's army, which came hun- 
dreds of leagues to besiege Jerusalem, included horse- 
men. How awful their doom! 

" There lay the rider, distorted and pale, 
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail; 
The tents 'were all silent, the banners alone, 
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown. 

And. there lay the steed, with his nostril all wide ; 
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride ; 
And the foam of their gasping lay white on the turf, 
As the spray of the sea on the wave-beaten surf. 

Mounting his fiery Bucephalus, Alexander went forth 
from Macedon to the conc[uest of the world. Cortez 
conquered Mexico by four hundred infantry and fif- 
teen horsemen. Napoleon's marshals and battalions 
subjugated Europe to his insatiate sway. 

It would be strange, indeed, that horses could be 
used only for purposes of ambition, blood, and death. 
Nor is it true. The bishops and curates in the days 
of the Bloody Mary, probably including Latimer and 
Ridley and others of the Smithfield martyrs, traveled 
their bishoprics and curacies in this manner. John 
Wesley and his ministerial and lay helpers rode up 
and down in Great Britain in the eighteenth century 
upon horses. It is equally true that to this day some 
of the large Wesleyan circuits keep a circuit horse 
for the use of the circuit preachers. For a hundred 
31 



482 SIXTV-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



and fifty years these mounted knights of the cross 
have been setting the United Kingdom "on a blaze." 

In the Colonial times, the Colonists almost exclu- 
sively traveled by horse. In the Revolutionary War 
all the officers, and the cavalry of course, were 
mounted. Washington traversed Virginia, Ohio, and 
Pennsylvania on horseback. Circuit judges, barris- 
ters, litigants, and doctors rode their routes on horse- 
back. Tradition affirms that the Great Commoner, 
Henry Clay, and President Andrew Jackson, rode back 
and forth, to and from Washington, on horseback. In 
Oregon, at my quarterly-meetings, nearly all the wo- 
men, as well as the men, who attended the meeting 
from a distance, came on horseback, some of them 
with a child in arms and one or two children behind. 
They were expert riders. I have seen mothers come 
riding in a lope or canter, with a babe in arms and one 
or two children behind. All the early Alethodist 
preachers traveled on horseback. This habit pre- 
vailed, as late as 1830, all through the Connection. 
Asbury, Whatcoat, McKendree, George, and Roberts, 
the first five American Methodist bishops, made their 
extended continental tours by horse. Nathan Bangs 
and John Dempster traversed the forests and swamps 
of Lower Canada in like manner.- For the pioneer 
preachers and people in her extended prairies and 
forests this was almost their only mode of travel. 

When, some sixty or seventy years ago, horse- 
riding in New York State gave place to buggy-riding, 
an amusing incident occurred. The Conference met 
in Wilkesbarre, which was at the southern extreme 
of the Conference. For the last twenty miles of the 
distance all the roads converged into one. The bug- 
gies were placed upon elliptic springs. They had as 
great popularity as our modern bikes. As the Con- 
ference day approached, the ministers came along this 



THE GOSPEL ON HORSEBACK, 



common highway in their buggies. There seemed no 
end of the long procession. A German and his son 
were working in a field along the pike. The father 
threw down his hoe, and cried out, "Vel, den, Hance, 
py sure, hell is proke loose." But this mode of travel 
had for the itinerants its special advantages and com- 
pensations. While thus riding, they read their Bibles 
and studied their sermons. They had much time for 
thought and prayer. They were men of much prayer 
and deep thought. In this way they mingled freely 
with the common people. They were, therefore, all 
the more esteemed, and accounted as of the common 
people. This gave them large influence and follow- 
ing. None of the people escaped their visits. They 
found all the settlers. A man and his family emigrated 
from Northern Georgia into Western Alabama. Be- 
fore he left Georgia the Methodist itinerant had se- 
cured the conversion of the man's wife and children. 
So he emigrated to get beyond their reach. He had 
selected his new home and gone upon it; but on the 
very day of his arrival, and before his household goods 
v^^ere unloaded, the itinerant rode up and sought their 
acquaintance. The pioneer gave it up. It was no 
use, he said, to try to get away from these ubiquitous 
circuit-riders. 

Then, moreover, travel on horseback had still other 
adaptations and compensations. Life in God's open 
air and sunshine and exercise gave the itinerants stal- 
wart physiques and robust, vigorous, bounding 
health: large capacity for enduring the exposures, 
perils, and fatigues of their laborious callings. They 
had large lung capacity, and loud, strong voices for 
preaching. In their long rides they sometimes en- 
countered men of keen intellect and of marked skill in 
debate. I recall and rehearse two notable examples: 
one of them of intellectual grapple, the other of phys- 



484 SIXTV-OXE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 



ical contention. Jacob Gruber entered the traveling 
connection in 1800, in the Philadelphia Conference. 
He was eccentric in manner and style, fearless in 
speech, and a man of unusual capacity for irony, sar- 
casm, and ridicule. In these lines he very rarely met 
his superior. Two mounted lawyers overtook him, 
and conversed with him for several miles. One of 
them rode on his right hand, and the other on his left. 
To test his scholarship, they addressed him in Latin. 
He answered them in German. They probably knew 
as little of his German, as he did of their Latin. They 
asked him whether he did not sometimes make mis- 
takes in reading and speaking. He admitted that that 
was quite probable. They said, "When you make mis- 
takes, do you always stop to correct them?" He re- 
plied: "'Xot always. When the mistake is trivial, I 
would hardly deem it necessary to stop and correct it. 
For example, if I were reading the passage, ''Woe 
unto you, scribes, Pharisees, lawyers,' and if, by mis- 
take, I should read it, 'Woe unto you, scribes, Phari- 
sees, liars,' I would hardly deem it necessary to stop 
and correct that." They said, "^Ir. Gruber, we 
scarcely know where to place you; i, e., as to whether 
you are a fool or a knave." *'Just now," said he, *T 
am probably between the two." 

They were as badly "left" as Mr. Wesley is re- 
ported as havnig left a bishop of the Church of Eng- 
land in London. Wesley and two of his ministers 
happened to meet on the pavement the bishop and two 
of his curates. The bishop held the sidewalk, remark- 
ing audibly, "I do n't give up my place on the pave- 
ment for a fool." "But I do," said Mr. Wesley, who 
bowed to the bishop, and stepped off the curb. If 
that event really occurred, ]\lr. Wesley answered a fool 
according to his lolly. 



THE GOSPEL ON HORSEBACK. 



485 



The next example was of physical prowess. Rev. 
Joseph S. Collins, a local preacher, father of the cele- 
brated John A. Collins, of the Baltimore Conference, 
was a man of gigantic strength. Collins 's encounter 
was quite equal, in its way, to that of Gruber. If 
Collins had not, like Paul, "fought with beasts at 
Ephesus," he had had serious grapple with contentious 
toughs, who required severe handling. A well-moimted 
stranger overtook Mr. Collins as he was on his way 
to a certain camp-meeting, which he was to conduct. 
After exchanging pleasant greetings, the stranger 
asked him if he could direct him to a certain camp- 
meeting in that vicinity, and also wdiether he could 
inform him whether Mr. Joseph Collins w^ould prob- 
ably be present. Mr. Collins promised to show him 
the way, and inquired why he had asked whether Mr. 
Collins would attend. He said Mr. Collins had put the 
toughs living in that vicinity under cover. Mr. Col- 
lins asked the stranger whether Mr. Collins had ever 
done him any harm. He answ^ered, "No;" but that he 
had come forty miles to give Mr. Collins a licking, 
and put the toughs in heart. Mr. Collins said, "If I 
were you, and Collins had never done you any harm, 
I would let him alone." They rode on together several 
miles. As they drew near the camp-ground, Mr. Col- 
lins inquired of him whether he was still of the same 
mind as when they had first met. The stranger said 
he was. Mr. Collins dismounted and hitched his horse, 
and invited the stranger to alight, remarking: "My 
name is Collins. I am the man you want to lick. We 
are near the camp-ground, and we may as well have 
the trial of strength here, and now." When the man 
had alighted and hitched his horse, Mr. Collins seized 
him by the collar and the slack of his trousers, and 
flung him over the fence. The stranger, picking him- 



486 SIXTY-ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

self up and rubbing the part on which he had fallen, 
is reported to have said, *'Mr. Collins, if you will kindly 
hand my horse over, we will call it quits." 

Mr. Gilruth, the Hercules of the Ohio Conference, 
is said to have seized an antagonist around the waist, 
and lifted him off the ground; then raising the bottom 
rail of the fence with one of his hands, he pushed the 
man's head under and dropped the rails over his neck, 
and left him thus in limbo, while Gilruth began to ride 
off with the honors. The man cried after him for 
mercy, and was released. He was afterwards con- 
verted under Mr. Gilruth's preaching. Many of the 
old-time veterans could tell of encounters with camp- 
meeting disturbers. 

We are celebrating their entrance into Ohio a hun- 
dred years ago, led by the intrepid John Kobler and 
Henry Smith. Ninety-one years ago the first Meth- 
odist Annual Conference was held in Chillicothe, on 
the Scioto. At that historic session sixty-six Meth- 
odist itinerants were present. Bishop Asbury pre- 
sided. All the preachers who attended that Confer- 
ence came on horseback. Some of them had ridden 
by horse a thousand miles to attend. Five presiding 
elders were present. They were the seniors of the 
body. William McKendree had entered the traveling 
connection nineteen years before; William Burke, fif- 
teen; Thomas Wilkerson, fourteen; John Sale, thir- 
teen; and Learner Blackman, seven. Their districts 
covered four States, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and 
Mississippi. Nearly all the others were recent recruits. 
Thirteen of them were received in 1805. These in- 
cluded the eccentric and renowned Peter Cartwright, 
one of the great men of the century; James Axley, the 
intrepid opposer and denouncer of slavery and the 
liquor-traffic; Jacob and David Young, long the hon- 
ored pillars of the old Ohio Conference; Jesse Walker, 



THE GOSPEL ON HORSEBACK. 



487 



who later was the chivalrous missionary of St. Louis; 
John Collins, of precious memory; Ralph Lotspeich, 
the weeping Jeremiah of those early prophets of the 
Western Conference; and the saintly Samuel Parker. 
Eleven had joined the Conference in 1806, and eleven 
men in 1807. 

Not alone in thc^West, but all over the country, 
some of the greatest men in American Methodism 
were trained and developed among these early circuit- 
riders. What a mighty, illustrious array! Freeborn 
Garrettson, who itinerated on horseback from Halifax 
to Virginia; Jesse Lee, the first historian of his Church 
and his times; William Beauchamp, the unequaled 
theologian; John Dickins, the father of our publish- 
ing-houses; Ezekiel Cooper, his eminent successor; 
George Pickering; John P. Durbin, one of the most 
distinguished of our educators, an eloquent orator, and 
for many years the great organizer of the Missionary 
Society of our Church; John Emory, one of our early 
bishops; Henry B. Bascom, long a chaplain of the 
United States Senate, and later a bishop of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South; William Nast, a nona- 
genarian, one of the earliest of our German annex; 
L. L. Hamline, John Strange, Joshua Soule, Elijah 
Hedding, W. B. Christie, Edward R. Ames, Matthew 
Simpson, Arthur and Charles Elliott; George W. 
Walker, physically, mentally, and morally one of the 
grandest of men; Russel Bigelow, Jason and Daniel 
Lee, and their early associates, who planted our ban- 
ners in far-of¥ Oregon; and so many more whom time 
would fail me to mention. They were God's noble- 
men. Men of brain and brawn, stalwart, sturdy, God- 
honoring, and God-honored. 

This potential equestrian brigade achieved at least 
three mighty results. They impressed their strong, 
unique personality upon their age, their century, and 



488 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

their country. They formed the effectual breakwater 
against the reaction of the American mind from the 
_ horrible Augustine theology, which threatened to land 
the masses of our people, first in the half-way house 
of Unitarianism, and then into the utter and blank 
infidelity of Volney, Voltaire, and Rousseau. They 
arrested this trend by turning the rank and file of the 
people into the more thinkable and evangelical doc- 
trines of Arminianism. They led the van of our ad- 
vancing civilization from the Atlantic to the Missis- 
sippi. They planted and promoted our cause in the 
most distant and inaccessible parts of our great Re- 
public. They induced the inclusion of Oregon and 
Washington and Idaho and Montana into the Na- 
tional domain. The pulsations of American Meth- 
odism throb with the impulses of their tremendous 
and concentrated genius and energy. They climbed 
the eastern foothills of the Rockies, scaled the Sierras, 
and planted our system and our agencies amid the 
golden placers of the Sacramento and along the shores 
of our mighty Northw^est. 

In closing this narrative of sixty-one years of 
itinerant life, I take occasion to make a few^ infer- 
ential statements. The life I have lived has been 
a very happy one. I had my choice in the begin- 
ning to be what my father intended and hoped I 
would become, a doctor of medicine or a minister. 
The ''necessity" w^hich God put upon me w^hen he 
called me to the w^ork of the ministry hardly left 
me to an option, or left an option to me. I felt 
the inevitable "woe is me, if I preach not the gos- 
pel." I yielded to that, and God has given me 
abundant seals tc^ my ministry. I trust I may have 
many stars in my crown; but wdiether or not, I 



CLOSING REMARKS. 



489 



have most certainly had a very successful life. 
''The hundred-fold in this world" has been my 
guerdon. I am firmly presuaded that the life ever- 
lasting aw^aits me. Reviewing all that I now know, 
if I had my life before me at the present to begin, 
I would most certainly choose the kind of a life 
I have had. 

It is my firm conviction that many young men 
whom God calls into his ministry, who refuse to 
yield to God's call, make an awful mistake, and, in 
very many instances, the mistake has cost them, O 
so dearly ! Their religious experience has been 
blighted, and not unfrequently their temporal pros- 
perity has either failed to come, or, if it came, it has 
been delusive and disappointing. ''Seek first the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all 
these things shall be added unto you," is just as 
true now as it was when the Divine One an- 
nounced it. 

The success of Methodism — and it has been 
great, indeed — has been in very large degree, be- 
cause the Methodist ministers have firmly known, 
and held by conviction and experience, the blessed 
reality of the gospel they have preached. Instead 
of going about to see if they can not find some 
higher criticism, they have found with delight how 
abundantly the Word of God has found corrobo- 
ration in their experience. And what has been true 
of the ministers who have preached a salvation 
which they have consciously found true in their 
own hearts, has been equally true of the laity, rank 
and file. The testimony of the lay members, men 



490 SIXTY- ONE YEARS OF ITINERANT WORK. 

and women, has been re-enforcing to the ministry 
of Methodism. It would be a sad mistake for the 
ministers to put forth neat and artistic moral essays 
for pungent, earnest gospel preaching; and, if pos- 
sible, a greater mistake for the laymen and lay- 
women of Methodism to switch off and turn aside 
from the experience and the practice of the fathers, 
both in the pulpit and the pew. "Forsake not the 
old landmarks. Rather inquire for the old paths, 
and walk therein." 

In noting the changes which have come during 
my long service in the itinerancy, I must name two 
things. Lay delegation is one of them. It has 
already done much in promoting our efificiency as 
a Church, and it will yield yet more fruit in the time 
to come, and as the system shall be more fully com- 
- pleted to make the lay and ministerial numerically 
equal. The other noticeable change is the won- 
derful fact that the Christian women of the world 
have come to the front as a result of the crusade 
of the women against the saloon. They are mak- 
ing themselves a great power for God in humani- 
tarian and Christian lines, and in pushing forward 
the great missionary work in home and foreign 
fields. 

While I have a large measure of catholicity, 
and can say and mean every word of it, ''Grace be 
to all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sin- 
cerity and truth," I also have the most clear con- 
viction that Methodism is a chosen plan of God to 
uplift and to save men ; and I advise all young 
Methodist preachers to "abide in the calling 



FINAL REMARK, 



wherein they have been called," and not seek to 
mend Methodism and improve upon it ; but to work 
it for all there is in it. It needs only an earnest 
ministry full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and a 
consecrated, devoted laity full of pentecostal fire 
and power, to make it even more grandly successful 
and soul-saving than it has ever been. To your 
tents, O Israel ! 

A final remark is this : I address it to the young 
men and women of Methodism — Have a cheerful 
religion. Do n't allow yourselves to become 
gloomy, discouraged, depressed. ''Be strong in 
the Lord." Have for your strength "the joy of the 
Lord," and you will be invincible ; nay, more, you 
will be victorious, triumphantly, immeasurably 
conquerors, and more than conquerors, over all 
enemies, obstacles, and difficulties. 



APPENDIX. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. 

The following article was published by the author in the 
, Jhly-August number of the Methodist Review for 1895. It is 
deemed to have interest for the readers of this volume. 

SLOWLY hut surely is the human race rising and 
advancing. It is steadily swinging up into God's 
sunlight. A great moral revolution is progressing. 
We beUeve it will not cease until God's beneficent pur- 
poses for humanity shall have been fulfilled. The 
wicked, usurping prince must be dethroned. The dia- 
dem must be removed from the wrong head. The 
crown unworthily worn must be taken off. The low 
must be exalted. The high must be abased, until the 
prophecy is fulfilled, *1 will overturn, overturn, over- 
turn it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose 
right it is; and I will give it him." And then shall 
all the kingdoms of this world "become the kingdora of 
our Lord, and of his Christ: and he shall reign for- 
ever and ever." 

Of this final consummation the harbingers are 
abundant. Civil governments are becoming leavened 
with the principles of righteousness, as they are con- 
tained in Christian ethics. In the recent past the sword 
was the chief, almost the only, solvent of international 
disputes and difficulties. Arbitration, statesmanship, 
and diplomacy are the methods now preferred and 
adopted for adjusting all such differences. A measure, 
originating in the British Parliament, is at this time 
nearly ready for submission to the United States Gov- 
ernment, as the basis of a treaty to be concluded be- 

493 



494 



APPENDIX. 



tween the British Government and ours — a proposition 
that hereafter all disputes arising between Great Brit- 
ain and the United States shall be settled by peaceful 
negotiations, and never by force of arms. All the 
leading reforms of the age, social, political, municipal, 
industrial, and monetary, are being vigorously and 
persistently pressed. All of these have as their basis 
and animus the morality of the gospel. The drint- 
habit and the drink-traffic are enlisting the attention 
and opposition of Christians and philanthropists in 
many different countries. The World's Woman's Chris- 
tian Temperance Union has prepared a monster petition, 
signed or attested by over seven millions of persons, 
against the liquor-traffic, to be presented to all the 
civil governments of the world. Crimes against soci- 
ety which hitherto have been unnoticed and unpun- 
ished are now placed under the ban of law. Among 
these are the social evil, the circulation of obscene 
pictures, cruelty to animals, lotteries, etc. We may not 
overlook these signs. They give good promise of the 
elevation of society and the reformation of civil gov- 
ernment. They foreshadow the oncoming of the uni- 
versal reign of righteousness, when the world shall be 
dominated by moral principle, rather than by force of 
arms; when swords shall be beaten into plowshares, 
and spears into pruning-hooks. The progress of art 
and science, and the multiplied discoveries and in- 
ventions of modern times, are nearly all of them in the 
interests of humanity. They are, also, proof and 
prophecy of the ascendency of Christianity. 

The projection of Christianity into the administra- 
tion of national and social affairs clearly and strongly 
denotes the great moral changes silently going forward 
in Christian lands. The Pullman strike of last year 
has fixed public attention upon this subject. Congress 



1 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, 



495 



has suggested a provision, which may not at once 
become a law, but which will doubtless soon be em- 
bodied into law, for amicably settling all disputes be- 
tween capital and labor, not by strikes nor mobs nor 
violence, but by peaceful arbitration. Great revivals of 
religion are occurring in many of the nations of the . 
world. These examples are only a few of many that 
might be adduced. They all point in one direction. 
They show an upward and forward movement. As 
we study the events of the closing years of the nine- 
teenth century, they give a retrospect of intellectual 
and spiritual progress, which excites a strong hope 
that the coming century will surpass all former de- 
velopments in like lines ever known in human history. 
The nineteenth century has been one of preparation, 
incitement, and impulse for greater achievements be- 
yond it, rather than a period of completed and unre- 
lated results. Its momentum, projected into the com- 
ing century, will doubtless yield triumphs of Chris- 
tianity in every direction, and on a scale of grandeur " 
never equaled. The conflicts and strikes arising from 
the friction of labor and capital are, let us believe, only 
the clearing-up storms which shall usher in the em- 
purpling dawn of universal peace and love. 

By steam and electricity the world is to-day closely 
compacted into general and intimate association, thus 
facilitating mutual uplifting, improvement, and evan- 
gelization. There are no distant, foreign, outlying 
regions. All the parts are in touch. Vibrations at the 
center are instantly felt on the periphery. Besides this, 
there is a common expectation prevalent, an earnest 
looking for the incoming of an era of unprecedented 
peace, unity, elevation, and advancement. The whole 
world seems to be under the spell of this enchantment 
concerning a glorious advent which seems imminent. 



496 



APPENDIX, 



A like prevalent desire and unrest to that which pre- 
ceded the coming of Jesus, as "the desire of all na- 
tions" nineteen hundred years ago, is seen to-day in 
the turning of all eyes and hearts to the unfolding 
future for some new and marvelous developments, in 
. moral and spiritual lines, which shall be of world-wide 
scope. As God satisfied that ancient desire by the 
advent of Jesus, and as he meets and satisfies all right 
and normal desires, so we may reasonably expect that 
he will satisfy this very general and intense expectation 
by a fuller and more attractive manifestation of the 
Lord Jesus Christ than the world has ever yet seen. 

A few speculations concerning the coming century 
are submitted, which will, perhaps, enable us to can- 
vass our subject in a more orderly and thorough 
manner. 

I. Upon what principal lines and in what forms 
may this advance be expected? In other words, judg- 
ing the future by the growing tendencies of the closing 
century and its immediate predecessors, what, may 
we safely conclude, will be the character of the ap- 
proaching century? Its advance should be, and it 
doubtless will be, on like lines with those on which, 
more than on any others and all others. Christian 
civilization has advanced in the past. 

I. There should be, and doubtless there will be, 
an increased imity and co-operation of all Christian 
denominations. The early years of this century were 
marked by sharply-defined lines of controversy and 
debate between all the Churches. It was not so much 
an emulation as it was a rivalry, competition, and con- 
tention for denominational ascendency. Each side was 
sparring and contending against all others. Ephraim 
envied Judah, and Judah vexed Ephraim. Within the 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. 



497 



recollection of those yet in active life, the dif¥erent 
Churches were rather hostile camps against each other 
than solid, united organizations against the common 
foe outside of all Christian folds. All this is now hap- 
pily changed — indeed, almost entirely reversed. If one 
should, enter a meeting of any one of the leading denomi- 
nations he would find the same general doctrines 
taught, the same calls to like diligent duty, the same 
features of religious experience and life and growth 
as in each of the others. Like sermons are preached, 
like results follow the ministrations in all the different 
Churches. There is a oneness of faith and effort and 
zeal and sympathy, and a brotherliness to-^ards all who 
love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth. 
All this is typical of a fuller and more real unity of the 
great body of Christ's disciples in all the different re- 
ligious denominations. And is hot this, after all, the 
real unity for which Christ pleaded in his last prayer 
for his disciples on the night of his betrayal? One of 
the most effectual ways of overcoming evil with good, 
and of convincing this world of its supreme need of 
Jesus, is by this obvious and practical unity of all his 
disciples. This is expressly stated in the Savior's last 
prayer: "Neither for these only do I pray, but for them 
also that believe on me through their word; that they 
may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I 
in thee, that they also may be one in us : that the world 
may believe that thou didst send me." He did not 
mean that they should be necessarily one in form, one 
in creed, one in outward name, one in external Church 
organization; but that they should be one in vital 
union with the Father and the Son, one in Christian 
faith and zeal, and one in aim and effort to win men 
for the kingdom of Christ. What truer or more real 
32 



498 



APPENDIX. 



unity could there be than a common faith in God and 
in his Son and a common zeal in extending the king- 
dom of God? 

2. The nineteenth century, and especially its latter 
half, has been marked by organized, systematic, ag- 
gressive movements against the powers of darkness, 
by large and increasing offerings for Christian mis- 
sions, both home and foreign, and by successful work 
in furthering Church extension and Christian educa- 
tion, both among freedmen and whites. To higher 
Christian education in the United States probably fifty 
millions of dollars have been devoted by philanthropic 
givers. And this is the greatest missionary age the 
world has ever seen. The Churches of this country 
contribute not less than ten millions of dollars a year 
for Christian missions. In translating the Bible into 
nearly all the languages of earth, and in multiplying 
and distributing the Holy Scriptures, the Bible Soci- 
eties of all Christian countries have kept fully abreast 
of the general missionary movements of the century. 
Christian literature and education are organizing and 
wielding immeasurable forces. Some of the largest 
publishing plants in the. world are maintained by 
Christian Churches. In the Methodist Episcopal 
Church alone, the net capital invested for this object 
amounts to over three millions of dollars. In almost 
all the habitable parts of the earth Christian missions 
are planted. Heathen languages have been studied, 
and Christian books have been published in them. 
Missionaries can now proclaim to every man in his own 
tongue the wonderful works of God. 

In the last twenty-five years humanitarian institu- 
tions upon a wide scale have been planted. Christian- 
ity is repeating the acts of mercy which Christ wrought 
when he was here among men. Equally significant is 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. 



499 



the present advanced status of Christian womanhood. 
The order of the King's Daughters numbers about 
three hundred thousand members. It preceded the 
modern de'aconess movement of the Protestant 
Churches. Then, also, the Woman's Christian Tem- 
perance Union and Woman's Home and Foreign Mis- 
sionary Societies have had wide and effective oper- 
ation. This is the era of womanly action and sym- 
pathy in Christian lines. The world stands convinced 
that Christian women have come to their kingdom for 
this emergency. The existence and increase of Young 
Men's Christian Associations in all parts of the world, 
and the grand moral results they have achieved, fur- 
nish another illustration of consecration to God. In 
the same general line, though of more recent origin, 
is the organization of the young manhood and woman- 
hood of all the Churches in Christian Endeavor Soci- 
eties and Chapters of the Epworth League. This is 
one of the phenomenal facts of modern times. It is 
a prophecy of grandest and sublimest moral victories. 
From a condition of comparative indifference and in- 
action, the youth of our Churches have become ear- 
nest, enthusiastic workers for God. In all these lines, 
and with all this accelerated movement, we are but 
in the seeding time for larger harvests for God's reap- 
ers. In nature the harvests exceed the sowing. And 
by as much as this is true, by so much will the moral 
successes of the coming century outweigh and out- 
measure those of its predecessors. God says he will 
make his Church "an eternal excellency, a joy of many 
generations." He says, "For brass I will bring gold, 
and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, 
and for stones iron." More money, more prayers, 
more faith and stronger faith, deeper, holier conse- 
cration, a more burning, quenchless zeal, a broader, 



APPENDIX, 



quicker sympathy — these must come. All these ac- 
cessories of quickened spiritual movement must flow 
and throb in all personal and Church life and in all 
Christian doing, until wildernesses of sin and sorrow 
become the Lord's gardens. 

3. In the coming century there should be, and there 
doubtless will be, a growing control and direction 
of all secular life by spiritual forces. The supremacy 
of God's law over all parts of man's being and over 
all methods of his action will become more and more^\; 
recognized as the true character and mission of Chris- 
tianity are displayed and apprehended. The two great 
Commandments, ''Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
thy strength, and with all thy mind ; and thy neighbor 
as thyself," will absorb all of man's powers. The dis- 
tinction between sacred and secular in Christian life - 
will disappear when it is clearly seen and understood 
that all of man's nature is under God's direction, and 
that what God has cleansed and what he claims may 
not be considered by us as ''common or unclean." 

4. The practical application of Christian principles 
will be a conspicuous feature of the moral progress 
of the coming century. Christianity makes full pro- 
vision for all of man's nature, relations, and conditions. 
The infallible specific for the cruelty of oppressors, 
for the wrongs of the oppressed, and for the conflicting 
claims of labor and capital is the Golden Rule — "All 
things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should 
do unto you, even so do ye also unto them." This 
principle can be applied to all of human life, and re- 
duced to universal operation in all human affairs by 
the restoring and redeeming power of Christ's grace. 
As this is done, the selfishness and greed engendered 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. 50! 

of human depravity, which are so painful and re- 
pellent, will disappear. 

5. Another form in which advance" will be made 
will be a growing use of the representative idea in 
civil government. Feudalism was a prolific source of 
despotic rule. Christianity has put down feudalism; 
it is to-day shaking the thrones of injustice and op- 
pression. Our republican institutions are honored and 
loved by the people of the world. Dwellers in Asia, 
Africa, and Europe, and the islands of the sea look 
hopefully, longingly, and lovingly upon our starry 
banner and our free institutions. In the coming dec- 
ades this process will go on until their ideal of liberty, 
drawn from our example and based upon the repre- 
sentative element in our Government, shall have be- 
come the practical heritage of those now living under 
non-representative institutions. There must be, and 
in the nature of things there will be, a gradual but 
irresistible extension of Christian and republican gov- 
ernment. This is the judgment of all enlightened 
people. The people's right to be heard and felt, and 
to have a voice in framing and directing their own 
institutions, will be insisted upon, and their demand 
will be heard and granted. 

6. In the development of humanity the Anglo- 
Americans are to hold a leading and controlling po- 
sition. The Anglo-Saxon people are the governing 
power of the world. They have the ruling, colonizing 
instinct. They dominate all the nations of modern 
times. They control a large part of the world's area 
at the present moment. In the world's commerce, 
in its diplomacy, in its statesmanship, and in its liter- 
ature, laws, wealth, and civilization, the Anglo-Saxons 
lead and direct. But the finest type of the Anglo- 



502 



APPENDIX. 



Saxon character and personality is the genuine Anglo- 
American. It is conceded that the Anglo-Saxon is 
gifted largely Vith the governing instinct ; so that on 
his world-embracing empire the sun never sets. But 
the Anglo-American has given the very highest proof 
'of his self-governing capacity in the institutions of the 
free Republic which he has founded, defended, built 
up, and extended, until it reaches from ocean to ocean, 
and from the Lakes to the Gulf. His laws are just and 
equal. He is acquisitive. He issues books. He in- 
vents. He discovers. He travels. He carries on 
great transactions, commercial and otherwise. Of the 
Anglo-Saxon type he is the raost intense and ener- 
getic specimen existing. He is a born discoverer and 
adventurer. Nervous, wiry, self-contained, thoughtful, 
resourceful, aggressive, most properly he leads the 
procession of the forces of modern propagandism, both 
of free institutions and of Christian civilization. He 
represents far more aggressive impulse and power than 
his illustrious and historic predecessors. Besides all 
this, Americans are the most intensely religious and 
Christian people of the world. They give more liber- 
ally and do more to extend Christianity than any other 
people. In the van of the great organizing, Christian- 
izing army of progress belongs of right the irresistible, 
irrepressible, resourceful Anglo-American. 

7. All this being conceded as to the man of the fu- 
ture, destiny points to the Western Hemisphere as the 
theater on which chiefly will be wrought out and dis- 
played the unfolding panorama of the final end, and the 
grandest achievements of all human history. Of neces- 
sity our Republic will have become the United States 
of all America — North and South — from Cape Horn 
to Bering Strait, together with all the adjacent insular 
appendages in both oceans. As a mighty, prosperous, 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. 503 

self-governing Nation, with no contiguous monarchy 
to be feared as a menace or felt as an irritant, the Re- 
public of all America will deservedly challenge the 
respect, the love, and the admiration of all mankind. 
This manifest destiny of a great continental Republic, 
covering and ruling a hemisphere, and having a popu- 
lation of five hundred and fifty millions and an area of 
fifteen million seven hundred thousand square miles, 
will be found as practicable as it is inevitable. Pos- 
sessing the facilities of steam and electricity, the soli- 
darity and direction of our vast empire and the work- 
ing of our free institutions can be as readily and ef- 
fectively extended over a hemisphere as they now are 
over our present domain, and are as practicable for 
half a billion of people as they now are for sixty-five 
millions. This is not merely an ideal picture. At our 
present rate of increase, before the twenty-first century 
shall have opened, the existing population of the 
United States will have become four hundred millions. 
The twenty-six millions of the rest of North and South 
America will have grown to sixfold their present num- 
ber, say to one hundred and fifty millions. As we 
have seen, they will all have been incorporated into 
our great Republic. This will give us an aggregate 
population of five hundred and fifty millions. How 
tremendous the moral power of such an example of 
self-directing Government and civilization, having al- 
most one-third the area of the world, and more than 
one-third of its population, and all with one flag, one 
nationality, one blood, one language, and one grade of 
civilization! Words can not portray, nor can thought 
conceive, the magnificent moral ascendency of such a 
Nation over all other nations and peoples. 

II. In achieving the exalted rank described — the 
highest among all the Governments of earth — and in 



504 



APPENDIX. 



gaining the glorious ascendency in moral character, 
what principal obstacles are to be encountered? 
Briefly — for spac€ does not admit of minute detail — 
they are ignorance, selfishness, and the repellent ele- 
ments of sinful, fallen human nature. One of the most 
inveterate and formidable of these obstacles is the 
drink-traffic. All patriots, philanthropists, and Chris- 
tians must engage in a fight to the finish against this 
gigantic evil. Under the power of God's truth, as 
wielded by good men, the monstrous, outrageous 
wrong will go down. Zeal in propagating knowledge 
can remove the most stolid and widely existing igno- 
rance. Love is the infallible cure for all man's malig- 
nant sinfulness and selfishness. The power of God's 
Holy Spirit can give divine energy and efficacy to all 
well-directed efforts to beat down opposing hindrances 
to the march of God's ''militant, embodied hosts," to 
set all moral wrongs in process of adjustment, and to 
make all things new. Human zeal and persistence, 
with God's re-enforcement, will prepare the way, and 
lead up to the glorious destiny predicted in God's 
great purposes for man. No room is left in this study 
for pessimism. Pessimism is mildew, blight, paralysis. 
It staggers and prostrates all reforms and all progress. 

HI. What are the other accessories and auxiliaries 
to be employed in bringing about, and in hastening 
the fulfillment of this exalted destiny? The hearts, the 
hopes, and the sympathies of all mankind will be in 
league with our aims, and will contribute in large 
measure to their realization. The Divine purpose and 
plan for the development and elevation of humanity 
will co-work with the agencies employed to crown 
the highest human aspirations with the supremest and 
divinest fruitions. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. 505 

IV. What will be the results of the ultimate 
achievement of this great destiny? Around the whole 
world peace will have spread her snowy pinions. War, 
with its barbarism and cruelty and waste, will have 
ceased forever among all peoples and in all lands. 
The nations will learn war no more. Science will have 
reached its sublimest discoveries. All of them will be 
seen to have wrought for human uplifting. Probably 
two hundred miles an hour will be the rate of our 
velocity over the earth's surface. Machinery, pro- 
pelled by electricity and applied to all the purposes 
and needs of man, will do most of the work heretofore 
done by human hands, thus giving all men more time 
and strength for intellectual and moral and spiritual 
work. All superstition and all the debasement result- 
ing from superstition will have passed away. The 
climax of moral grandeur will have been reached. 
Truth will have the right of way as against all frauds 
and falsehoods. Every city shall be a Jerusalem, be- 
cause it will be a city of truth. Every man will speak 
the truth with his neighbor. In the gates of all the 
cities all men will execute the judgment of truth. 
Then shall be fulfilled one of the most beautiful and 
blessed of the prophecies — ''Mercy and truth are met 
together; righteousness and peace have kissed each 
other. Truth springeth out of the earth; and right- 
eousness hath looked down from heaven." Beneath 
his own vine and fig-tree every man shall dwell in 
safety. Every form of evil will have disappeared be- 
fore the insufferable blaze of God's truth and right- 
eousness. All human suffering caused by disobedience 
to right law will have ceased. The streets of the cities 
shall be full of children, playing in the midst of the 
streets thereof, without peril to life or limbs or morals. 



« 



5o6 



APPENDIX. 



The apocalyptic angel shall have sounded the decree 
of the final consummation: "The tabernacle of God is 
with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall 
be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, 
and be their God." 



Hii,i,SBORO, O., August, 1899. 



